


A wave of snow that may cover the World

by Samthemage



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Divergence, DEFINITE CANNON Divergence but some inspiration of current cannon but not much, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:46:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 35,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25529890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samthemage/pseuds/Samthemage
Summary: When storms pass we all expect a sunny day but we forget that a sudden wave of snow may cover the world.
Relationships: Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Oscar Pine/Ruby Rose, Ozpin & Oscar Pine, Weiss Schnee & Whitley Schnee & Winter Schnee, Whitley Schnee & Klein Sieben, Whitley Schnee & Willow Schnee, a really special Whitley ship to be added at a future date.
Comments: 76
Kudos: 93





	1. Setting the board

Chapter 1 setting the board

Whitley was in his room. It was large and spacious, with a lavish piano besides his desk. Many bookshelves, filled with books as business, math, history, general literature lined his room. However, there were some books that were about nothing at all. the books where what his father called place holders or wallpaper depending weather it was to congratulate Whitley on trying to grow as an academic or insult him for thinking that actual substance could ever replace appearance and that even if he got him those books they would be wasted on such a young and stupid child.

Whitley was seated in his desk with his scroll, documents scattered around him.

he seemed to be as calm as a pool of water for him there was nothing in the world other than the documents in front of him.

He had been analyzing how much money he still had at the moment and calculating how much he could spend on his future plans. Despite all of his father’s fits of rage over the company losing all their money and them never being able to financially recover if the dust embargo went any longer, they had lost a relatively small amount that they could recover in a few months of usual business. It still had the possibility of running the company at a loss for 5 years.  
Despite all his father was, Whitley had to admit he was an efficient businessman. One that had no vision, but he still taught him that to make money one must first spend money. Of those five years of company funds, he had already spend one on acquiring many factories, patents, recruiting new engineering staff, large portions of land in both Atlas and Mantle. He knew all these new acquisitions were at a bargain price and that nobody would truly notice what he was doing. Not with headlines such as ´ACE OPS ROYALLY FLUSHED BY ATLAS NEW ICE QUEEN´ blazing every Atlesian news source.

It had been 3 weeks since what was now called the Battle for Atlas. The battle was deemed a victory for Atlas, against the creatures of Grimm. If one could call the near destruction of Mantle leaving hundreds dead and thousands without a home, severely crippling of the Atlas military, most of the Atlas’ ruling council either dead, presumed dead in the case of his father or having resigned their post as in the case of the now disgraced James Ironwood.

Whitley’s sister, Winter, had been promoted to general for her many services during the Battle for Atlas. However, she was still recovering from her wounds. Whitley briefly thought of sending a get well soon present but it could be considered as a cruel joke coming from him.

Whitley dearly hoped that his father was dead. The last thing Whitley needed was for Jacques to suddenly turn up alive and throw his plans into chaos. Whitley had a few contingencies prepared if that happened but he would strongly prefer to never see him or his corpse.  
Weiss and her little group of plucky misfits had gone into hiding after Ironwood had posted orders for capture with the permission of lethal force. Winter had only changed the part about possibly killing them into capture and detainment in the main Atlas military base.

As for the SDC, Whitley had inherited it upon the discovery of the wreck of his father’s transport. None of the board members objected in an effort to keep a normalcy by having somebody of his name lead the company and try to control Whitley due to his perceived ‘innocence’. A large amount of his time was now spent reassuring the shareholders about the stability of the SDC and that their returns would still be profitable.

Many of those meeting ended with them desperately selling SDC stock for Whitley made them believe with a few choice words that he was incapable of leading this company. Those idiots handed him more than enough stock as to be able to do whatever he wanted with the company.

If any of the fools that overlooked Whitley and abandoned him knew what he had planned for the future, they would bow at his feet ask for forgiveness, and hail him as a savior. He would show them who he really was He was not a spoiled brat, he was not a hapless idiot that you could abandon, and most important of all he WAS NOT HIS FATHER.

For now, Whitley needed to keep organizing everything he loaded up on his scroll -- a document detailing what had happened to the remaining members of the ace ops.

A notification appeared at the top of the holographic screen from Klein.

`The movers have arrived, Master Whitley.’


	2. House cleaning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little house cleaning can go a long way to make everything better

The Schnee manor was in chaos . Not the calm and controlled experience that was one of the grand balls or the civilized disorder of one of their charity drives. It was more of a controlled chaos people were running all over the estate, screaming over each other removing most of everything of value that was not bolted down, and what was bolted down would be unbolted and removed. The only place that was really left untouched where the servant quarters.

At the center of all this, Whitley ordering everything around telling what should be packed up and placed on the various cargo trucks outside or near his grandfather’s grave. He made sure that none of the merchandise would be damaged in any way he needed them in perfect condition for them to be of maximum value.

Most of the useless book would be recycled. Paintings and the furniture would be sold towards many of the rich and powerful, especially if any of the paintings where the main subject matter is one or both of his sisters. The paintings of Winter he’d sell for ridiculous sums to those that think of supporting her on her meteoric rise to power for their own benefit. The paintings of Weiss would go towards those that stand in opposition to Winter, wishing to turn her into a symbol of rebellion.

Either way, Whitley would gain a large amount of capital. Suddenly he saw something out of place someone that did not fit his plans. Of course, that someone was a female member of his family. Specifically, his mother.

Willow Schnee timidly moved towards him holding a bottle of strong liquor with both hands.

“Whitley,” she called out with a sad little voice.”What is happening? Why are all these people in the house?” Her eyebrows furrowed, forming anxious creases. “Why are they taking the paintings of my father away?”

Whitley promptly responded. “Mother , would you do me the favor of please returning to wherever you were drinking and leave me alone”

Willow was taken aback with her son´s comment, mouth parted. She shook her head.

“No. Please tell them to leave everything how it was. Why are they putting many off the paintings and books near the garden? I can see them pile up to the point I can’t see your grandfather´s grave from the window.”

“Mother, if you wish for an explanation you will have to wait for a better time. Right now, I’m _busy_ ,” Whitley replied in an annoyed tone. “Klein, can you come here and escort Mother back to her chambers?”

Klein, as if he was in queue came over instantly, and said in a hushed tone so only Whitley would hear. “Master Whitley are you sure about this? I think a conversation with your mother might be very beneficial, maybe over tea with crepes?”

“That does sound wonderful Klein …” Whitley said, “but not at the immediate moment. Will you please escort her? I believe she has had more than enough to drink and is getting quite tired.”

“Of course, Master Whitley,” responded Klein with a slight bow. He moved to obey his Master’s orders. When they were gone, Whitley saw his mother had left the nearly full bottle on one of the counters. He decided to grab it with one hand, knowing it would come in as useful later in the day.

The head mover, a female fox Faunus, approached Whitley. “The trucks are fully loaded up with all that was requested to be moved to the 4 main warehouses.”

“Good,” responded the boy. “Make sure all the merchandise is correctly stored as per my written instructions and you will be promoted to head manager, Miss Laila.”

“Understood, sir.´´ The girl had responded failing to mask her waggling tail at hearing of the chance of a promotion. After she had left the main door, Whitley heard her screaming at all her coworkers and even threatening some of those ``LAZY BAGS OF FUCKS´´. He already knew that Laila was an incredibly hardworking and competent employee but her Faunus trait had made her be passed over for promotion under his father´s administration but it seems she is finally going to receive what was owed.

The mansion looked nearly empty except for some of the more functional and used furniture and the bookshelves that looked rather empty with all of the pointless books removed for good measure. No paintings remained in the house, even some of the statues and pottery were moved in those trucks.

But he knew where a lot of the paintings were in the courtyard, near his grandfather’s grave with all the empty books from his room and his father’s office, along with any and all paintings with his father´s image.

There was a deep hole of unturned earth waiting for him. He had ordered it dug and for the earth and shovel to be left there. All having been laid closely around each other on a nonflammable tarp.

To Whitley these paintings were ugly unsightly his father always looking down to him calling him out for any imaginary mistake in his part for any supposed imperfection reminding him that the idea of a loving family to him would only be the most ridiculous fantasy. These paintings represented that which had made him miserable through his life that which had removed hope, happiness and any positive relations he might have built beforehand. But he refused to let his past destroy his future.

And in the center the Schnee family portrait stood proudly with everyone looking grim or sad everyone except for him he was the only one who genuinely smiled.

Whitley hated how that portrait seemed to suck all the hope and color from his life reminding him of how alone he was. He took the bottle that he had taken away from his mother and poured it out along the tarp coating the books and paintings in alcohol.

And then, stepping off the mat, making sure that the extinguisher he had brought just in case was functional and that there were no rouge factors, Whitley pulled out his embroiled lighter.

This lighter was given to him by Jacques. His told him that such an accessory would represent the image of the SDC; the power, the wealth and the image of the perfect gentleman.

Whitley lighted the painting and watched how the flame flickered and shook before tossing it into the pile.

Whitley watched everything in it burned and felt relieved at it at the sight. He stayed until there was nothing but ash. He later folded the tarp so that all the ashes would be sealed in it, throwing it into the hole and covered it all with dirt using the shovel.

After he returned to his room where the piano, the desk, and the books that had actual content in them where left. He felt amazing full of hope for the future, the past could be left behind and he could start again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im posting the first 3 chapter so you know what im about


	3. New unexpected opportunities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oportunities arrise from the most unusual places

Marrow Amin was not having a good day. 

The more he thought about it was more of a bad month. It did not start of that bad. He was getting used to being in the Ace Ops, helping keep Atlas safe. 

Then these rogue teenagers appeared out of nowhere, you captured them even though you noticed one was a Schnee. They later talked to Ironwood and where placed under the Ace Ops supervision, with two of them placed under yours. Those two, the blonde and the kittycat, could have their moments but, man, did they sometimes knew how to get on your nerves always making googly eyes at the other and never being able to take anything serious. 

After disobeying Ironwood’s direct orders and you had to fight them, not knowing whether to kill them or to capture them. Losing to the Schnee girl was bad, however, it was not the worst. You promised yourself that next time, there’d be no funny business. You’d the be the victor. 

Having to fight wave after wave of Grimm, after finding out Clover was dead, you thought things could not get worst. Man, were you wrong.

When the fighting finally came to an end, Ironwood resignation and him handing control of the Atlas military to Winter. She demoted nearly all the members of the Ace Ops for their complacency towards Ironwood’s orders in the possible abandoning of mantle and its people. 

(Beta’s note: For some reason the comment feature is now all wonky so I’m going to have to communicate through this. It’s hypocritical of Winter to be demoting the Ace Ops for complacency, when she, herself, was also complacent in siding with Ironwood in abandoning Atlas. There is a scene where this is even pointed out by Penny in the show. I feel that an extra sentence where Winter gathered the Ace Ops, explaining she’s demoting them for PR, rather than complacency would help greatly in keeping Winter consistent with her previous actions)

All the living members remained in the Atlas military. Demoted to being almost grunts, try to mend any relationship with the people of mantle as the new general had explained except for you. They threw you away as a scapegoat to show that they had severely punished all the Ace Ops. You knew it was uncalled for and it was mostly to placate that giant douche Coronel Lilac. He always was against any promotion you received and had always been a pain in your ass. Always talking about how you would never should or would have a position of high command, for it was a job that required thinking and a simple faunus was not suited to it. 

Having hit rock bottom, you decided to rent the cheapest apartment and drink your sorrows away. 

Drink till you forget your aspirations that by working hard and being an exceptional Faunus you could change the world. 

Drink till you forget the pain of being abandoned by those you considered your friends.  
Drink till you don’t care that your life is basically over since half of Mantle hates you for being a Faunus and the other half hates you because you did Ironwood’s dirty work.

Hell, you had pawned off Fetch for more drinking money, not like you could ever use her again with your career as a hunter being basically over. 

While walking the ruined streets of Mantle with an empty bottle in one hand, a headache and a wounded pride, you see a poster.

`Winter Schnee for the Council. We need strength in this time of need.´ 

You throw your empty bottle with all of your impotent rage you can muster. You miss the poster and hit one of the few unbroken windows in the building next to it. Feeling ashamed, you decide to run to the next block. 

On your way back to your apartment, you see the strangest thing: a black limo surrounded by four white drones. The limousine stops with one of the back doors near you. One of the drones tells you to come inside with a sterile, robotic tone. 

You cannot think of any Atlassian that would come down to party at Mantle, especially in this neighborhood. 

But it is not like this could get any worse. 

Maybe it is the alcohol or your curiosity speaking but you go inside. The inside of the limo is quite different from the outside it, all white with gold trimming on the cushions. 

But it is not the luxurious insides that surprised him. It was who was inside the limo. It was a Schnee. There was no mistaking it white hair blue eyes. The kid looked too much like Winter and Weiss for it to be a coincidence. He vaguely remembered Weiss mentioning she had a brother but could not recall Winter ever talking about it. 

The kid started to talk. “Hello, Mr. Amin. How have you been doing as of late?”

“Well I was thinking who would insult me inside their limo but I never expected a Schnee.” Marrow responded with a casual tone. “Are you going insult me for being a faunus or for having worked with your sister?”

The Schnee kid merely smiled, with faux innocence way that made Marrow irritated. “I believe that we have gotten off on the wrong foot. Let’s start again. My name is Whitley Schnee, the current head of the Schnee Dust Company, and I have come to talk to you Marrow Amin about a job offer.”

Marrow started to laugh” Wait. So you’re the head of the SDC? I thought that Winter, being the control freak she is, would have taken the company. She still disappoints, I guess.”

“Well winter was out of the line of succession for quite some time and was to slow to stop me from inheriting the tittle. As you know my sister is currently a fugitive. Plus, with the board of directors being so divided at the moment I came to be seen as a happy compromise.” Whitley responded with a koi smile.

“About the job offer … would you like to hear me out?” Whitley went on in a cheerful tone

“Forget it, kid. If you want a Faunus clown that degrades himself, you can go take a hike.” Marrow answered while bearing his teeth.

“If by clown, you mean bodyguard, and by degrade, you mean protects and advise me then yes I should leave.´´ Marrow hated the chipper smile on the Schnee kid’s face.

Marrow was in complete disbelief. “Wait. You are serious. Are you talking about giving me a job?” Marrow paused, trying to process what was happening. “Why?”

“You are one of the best hunters in Atlas. You have recently fallen on hard times and been dishonorably discharged from the military, where you previously had a decorated career where you rose by your merit and incredible loyalty.” Whitley said with a flourish

``Why do you want me, a Faunus, a minority that doesn’t take too kindly to Schnees, around you?” Marrow’s voice grew steadily as his shock made him lose composure. 

“Because you seem to be the best fit for the job and you seem to be in a position that you need this job. I mean imagine Winter’s face when she sees I have a bodyguard,” Whitley added, with a devilish smile. “To succeed and watch your enemies fail would that not be the perfect revenge especially for someone who was so obviously scapegoated such as you ´´

Marrow considered this for a few seconds. Would he really play faunus servant to a bratty little rich kid just to get back at his former operatives? “I want to hear everything you have to say so say it .´´

“I would prefer to discuss business while you are sober. We’re going to the Schnee Manor for you to sober up,” Whitley calmly responded.

After a long ride and a private airship flight, they soon arrived in the manor. Whitley gave Klein instructions for that the rest of the servants pick up Mr Amin and set him to sleep in one of the servant quarters. Whitley placed particular importance on the order that when Mr Amin woke up, deny him any and all request for alcohol. After most of the servants had left, Whitley requested a private conversation with Klein.

“Klein, do you know why I wanted to talk to you?” Whitley stated

``No master Whitley it all came a bit out of the blue to me. ´´ Klein answered

``It is quite simple really. I wish to talk about your role in the Schnee manor and how it will drastically change in the near future,” Whitley explained

``Whatever do you mean? I have always been a faithful servant to the Schnee family,” Klein said. There was a touch of concern on his face. 

“Yes to the family, but what about its individual members. You and mother both seem to play favorites from time to time.´´ Whitley responded

“Whatever do you mean master Whitley. ´´ Klein answered and placed his hands together into a ball 

“Klein you do not need to worry so much I am not going to fire you, I’m only going to change your role in the household. You will not be able to move with complete freedom around the household or have as many duties as before It is mostly a precaution so that past actions will not repeat themselves. Still you will have a task that I would not trust to anyone else with. ´´ Whitley said while placing his hand on both of Klein’s to try to reassure him

“We both know about my mother’s condition yes she has not stopped drinking even though my father is most likely dead, she could improve by herself but that is unlikely. So I’m tasking you with finding an intuition to give her the help she needs and accompany her in her healing process.”

Kleins eyes had changed from his usual brown eyes to a light blue and had started to smile “I see the young mater wishes to salvage his relationship with his mother very well I will be of service. ”

“Good thank you Klein now it is bedtime tomorrow will be a big day so I need to rest.” Whitley smiled with relief knowing that Klein would help him with getting his life back together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will try to update regularly so that the show can go on.


	4. The emperors new duds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What do we need for a new job a new set of clothes

Marrow had awoken with a horrible hangover. 

Marrow had been sleeping in the softest bed he had ever rested in, but the pounding in his head erased any comfort it could have brought. Upon feeling the bile rising up from his stomach, he raced the guest bathroom toilet. Marrow puked hard and he cringed when some of it did not land its mark on the toilet. He quietly cleaned up the mess he made, not wanting to impress even worse of an image on his boss and co-workers by not cleaning up after himself. 

Marrow heard the door open and stumbled out to see a maid with grey hair and ram horns walk. She had a mop and a bucket in one hand and clothes on the other. 

“Would the good hunter Marrow Amin please get cleaned to join the young master for breakfast,” the maid said in a drool, monotone voice. 

Marrow then noticed that she was handing him the clothes and signaling to the shower. Marrow sheepishly accepted the clothing, heading back into the bathroom. 

The Schnee dining room was as spacious the last time Marrow saw but now it was incredibly empty. The sparkling chandelier was gone, the paintings too. Most of everything that was lavish and luxurious was gone, leaving everything eerily empty and cold.

At the end of the polished long table, there sat Whitley eating a crepe. The Schnee heir saw Marrow and pointed to a chair near him and signaled a short balding butler. The butler brought a plate of food to the table of crepes and tarts, a few of the pastries made with meat and making Marrow’s stomach rumble. 

Whitley began talking after a few minutes of silence and eating. 

“So, Mr. Amin, I will give you at the moment to eat and then explain our schedule,” Whitley calmly explained.

“Hey kid, I haven’t seen your mother. Do you guys not eat together?” Marrow asked. 

“No,” Whitley replied with a hint of annoyance and almost seeing to be taken off balance by the question. “We do not. Especially since she is currently not feeling well.” 

“Well then, lay it on me big man. I don’t think we have all day.” 

Whitley arched an eyebrow. “Very well then. First order of business is going to be a quick airship ride towards one of my facilities I will ask for a large amount of council and feedback. This trip will also be to design and make the equipment you will use for your primary purpose of protecting my life. Then the day will be a few private meetings, and meetings with accounting. Afterwards I wish to have a word with you.” Whitley explained with his regular calm.

The rest of breakfast went smoothly. However, Marrow still was suspicious about the kid’s intentions. He was not like his sisters at all, he didn’t possess the same regal beauty at but did not have the cold and harsh look Winter had, or the bratty attitude of Weiss. He had a calm yet chirper tone and was quite polite. 

It seemed the Schnee’s were all better than he thought … until it was time to stab you in the back. 

They had boarded a private airship. Marrow was quick to notice when he started looking for the champagne, there was only soft drinks and fruit juice. Out of the blue, Whitley passed him a tablet.

“Before we get to the facility, we should have a short news briefing,” Whitley suggested. “Could you please start reading the headlines?”

Marrow was confused. Was this some sort of test? Was Whitley testing his literacy skills? If so, Whitley should be aware Marrow graduated from Atlas Academy, asshole. 

“Stalemate at the Front lines of Mantle.” “Grimm Attack at Mantle Council Building” “General Schnee Accused of Incompetence” “Homeless Desperate For Work” “Rogue Huntswoman Steals from Atlas Military”

“Would you kindly read the articles pertaining to my sister and the homeless? I would think these articles are the most important.”

“Sure …”

Marrow read and started to understand that the situation was worse than the last time he paid attention. 

Winter was starting to bend under the weight of expectation and responsibility that came with high command, not being able to paint a pretty picture to the public. People were demanding that she fix everything. He saw Whitley reading on his scroll tablet the same news he was reading but saw him in a contemplative stare.

Marrow broke the silence. “Well, that was depressing. Any specific reason why you needed my opinion on this.”

“Well, I primarily wanted to talk about if people would accept anyone other than the Atlas Military to protect them and if they would oppose this hypothetical force or support it.” 

“People support the Atlas Military primarily because they keep them safe. We keep them safe because we are the best of the best and we get results. The only way I could see that happen is if the Atlas Military started to fail to get results or if a majority of its best Huntsmen and Huntswomen where to change sides or retire. That, and if the public were to turn on the military,” Marrow answered 

Whitley hummed, considering the statement. “We are going to land soon. I thank you for your insight.” 

After landing, Marrow was surprised. He expected to go to one of the SDC offices or one of its many factories and refineries. Whitley told him to stay close, to follow him and to not talk to anyone. 

They walked near a discarded sign that read ‘SMITHING SMITH STEEL COMPANY’. Apparently, the Smiths were no longer the owners of the building. He walked behind Whitley around the factory. 

The factory was loud and full of life with what might be called a multitude of people and an orchestra of machines. But what most shocked Marrow was what they were building. 

They looked a lot like Atlesian Knights except a lot bulkier. They were a lot more angular with heavy pauldrons and thick angular armor. Their arms where not anything similar to human arms. More like they were designed to hold tools that would become their arms. There were larger models that did not have legs at all. Just two heavy sets of tracks. 

The thing that baffled Marrow the most was something he would describe as a giant crab with 4 legs that held it upwards. He could see that many of the factory was producing what could be seen as mining equipment and some parts of the factory were producing what was definitely weapons. 

“We have arrived.” Whitley said, ripping marrow out of his trance. 

They came to a large service elevator. They went down and Marrow saw many of the completed robots down here being used for a variety of things. The Atlesian Military rip-offs were moving large cubes and other things. The crab was doing laps equipped with a large drill. Many of the treadmill versions were using shields against the versions that had legs that were shooting lasers and blasts at them, sometimes making big explosions but testing if the shields would hold. Others were sparring with hand mounted melee weapons against other robots. Marrow saw one of them cut the other robot in half and grimaced.

Marrow followed Whitley to an office. When they opened it, most of the outside world noise was gone. Even though there were people outside, inside there were a lot more and all of them where almost glued to screens in front of them. They had some sort of camera feed on those robots and some looked like they were controlling them with arcade-style controls. 

Whitley opened a side office. Marrow had seen messy working spaces before. Hell, he would not consider himself an organized person if it came to that but this was ridiculous. Graph paper scattered everywhere, documents and blueprints thrown around at random. All around there was someone sitting behind a screen. The man took one look from his monitor and smiled beamingly bright.

“MR. SCHNEE! WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU TODAY!” The man screamed out.

“Marrow Amin,” Whitley started, “I would like to introduce you to Professor Samuel Sunshine, head of research and development here.” 

Calling him a man would be hard. Professor Sunshine looked hungry, tired and disgustingly happy to see Whitley. He had fluffy, unkept orange hair, his yellow eyes hidden partly by his hair, large circles were apparent underneath his eyes making him look owlish. He had messy and food stained clothes that vaguely resembled a lab coat, some extremely cozy pants and shirt.

“You seem hungry. Have you not eaten yet?” Whitley sounded oddly parental. 

“Nope! You see, too much work to be done and I just don’t want to stop or interrupt myself from it!” The doctor chirped.

“Wasn’t your secretary supposed to bring you food at regular intervals and make sure you sleep?” Whitley asked, annoyed.

“Oh! My wife, Ellie! No, she told me just this once that I could stay late working. She’s been working as hard as I have.” The doctor said with an embarrassed smile

“Very well,” Whitley accepted. “Tell me the situation. Are we on schedule?”

“YES! WE HAVE ALREADY FINNISHED PRODUCTION ON THE KNIGHT ERRANTS, THE DEMOLISHERS AND BEHEMOTHS. THE EAGLE CARRIER, OWL SUPERIORITY FIGHTER AND THE MOCKINGBIRD CARRIER ARE ALL ALSO FINNISHED! WITH THE REQUESTED PRODUCTION FINNISHED WE ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON THE FIFTY PER CENT SURPLUS YOU SAID SHOULD BE MADE IF THE PREVIOUS GOAL WAS COMPLETED!” The Professor excitedly shouted, almost falling over every other word he said.

“Could you please chill?” Marrow pleaded with a large hint of annoyance.

“Sorry. All tests have been completed. The safeguard measures are finally done and the only thing left is for you to make the 3 passwords to complete them, sir.” The scientist said in a more subdued tone.

“Good. Now about the custom-made armor I requested?” 

“It is complete. The only thing is to connect it to the guard-dogs and to paint it,” the scientist said kindly.

“Good, good. Could you help my friend here He had recently come upon hard times and needs a new weapon help him get through it?” Whitley patted Marrow on the back. 

The doctor scrutinized Marrow’s form then stated, “Give me 2 hours! Would you mind if I take him to my workshop?”

“There would not be any problems. I will make a few phone calls and have the documents sent to me,” Whitley replied. 

“FOLLOW ME MY GOOD HUNTER!” Samuel started pushing Marrow out the door. For a weedy guy, he sure was strong. 

Samuel pushed Marrow through the testing area to a room. There was an unfamiliar, strange device in the middle of the space. It was like a hollow table but smaller.

“What is that?” Marrow asked.

“Oh, that? The Mobile Hunt Weapon Factory. It was my project for the competition the former General Ironwood set up. My idea was to facilitate huntsmen weapons on the field to make a mobile weapons factory that could make high grade weapons near the field. You would just either make the blueprint, or upload it and boom! It would make it in a relative short time.” 

“If I remember correctly, most of those projects where patented by the atlas military later in time. What about yours?” 

Professor Sunshine’s sunny smile dropped into a cloudy frown. “No,” he answered mournfully. “Mine was overlooked for any patent. ‘Too impractical for military use’ they said.”

“But Mr. Schnee told me a different story, saying I was selling my product to the wrong people. The military needs to arm and equip millions thus they cannot be bothered with portable arm factories to equip a few but the hunters themselves would eat it up as long as it was portable enough. He bought my patent and gave me this job. Can you believe that? He even made my wife my secretary!

“First off, I want your opinion on your new armor,” Sunshine went on. 

Sunshine brought over a large sack near the Mobile Hunt Weapon Factory, opening it up for the other man to see. 

Armor was very inside. It was different from his usual combat apparel, heavier with slick thin sheets of metal covering it. The helmet had a tin sheet of black glass making it almost a dome. It seemed to be bulky however was surprisingly light when Marrow lifted it. Marrow saw an array of communication devises in the inside and a microphone. 

Marrow put the armor on. The rest of the set followed suit with the helmet – light and not at all heavy. When it came time to put on the helmet, Sunshine pressed a few hidden buttons to the side. The helmet came to light, displaying holo screens before Marrow. It showed the amount of aura he had, the armour’s status and other miscellaneous screens. Sunshine pressed another button, causing the displays to go away, with most of the helmet all moving upwards. Marrow jumped when he realized he see behind himself. 

“The armor is equipped with a head display that is designed to give all important information during a battle. The display can be turned off without making the helmet go away and it will still give full visibility. The armor is made of many layers of highly durable Sheetmetal and a will soften all sorts off impacts. The armor will direct your aura evenly in-between every layer with some excess in the top layer to give both maximum mobility and maximum protection. Your opinion, Mr. Amin?” Sunshine beamed at him like a dog expecting a treat, which was funny, all thing considered. 

“It is very impressive,” Marrow answered, and somehow the man’s grin grew wider. “But can we change the design of the helmet? It looks like a bucket.”  
“Certainly!” The man took the helmet and inserted it into his machine. Sunshine fiddled with the controls as machine started to move. Marrow assumed Sunshine was done when the machine stopped moving. Sunshine pulled out the helmet, resembling the head of a mad hound. Marrow liked what he saw. The scientist pressed the button, retracting the front plate to allow full vision and face recognition with the animal features gone from it.

“So, what color do you want it painted?”

Marrow started thinking the kid was all blues and whites from what he knew about colors. He wanted to look intimidating and fearsome if he was to be this kid’s bodyguard. 

“How about black and Dark blue trimmings?”

The scientist put on his brightest smile. “Interesting choice. I will paint the armor here. Please move to the workbench and prepare the schematics for your weapon. Do not worry! Mr. Schnee made sure that the mobile weapon smith was incredibly user friendly!”

Sam was right. The factory was incredibly easy to use. Marrow started making the design for Fetch 2.0, putting his mind into it. By the time he had finished, Sunshine had returned and looked over Marrow’s shoulder. When the Faunus was finished, Sunshine started suggesting additions to it.

The new Fetch was similar to the old one but had four main new additions. First, the boomerang blade was better defined and was even present in its rifle form. The rifle was of a higher caliber. Marrow always preferred a small caliber as it was the cheaper option. With his new boss, money now did not seem like a problem anymore. The grappling hook in the under the barrel would give him more mobility. Finally, the dust launcher on top of the barrel that was sure to wreak mayhem for his enemies.

Marrow couldn’t wait to take his baby for a spin. 

Samuel led Marrow back to his office. Whitley in the computer, working, fingers flying on the keyboard. 

Whitley left his head from the holo-monitor. “Back already? I was just making sure everything was in order. Samuel, you do not disappoint. Accounting and Legal have everything in order.” 

Sunshine started talking about Marrow’s new equipment in detail. Marrow saw the boy was less interested in his explanation and more interested in seeing it in action.

“We should try it out against a few knight’s errant, don’t you think Samuel?” Whitley interrupted

“THAT SOUNDS AWESOME! I’LL GET THEM READY! PLEASE HEAD OUT INTO THE SPARRING AREA.” Sunshine exploded with childlike excitement.

Marrow and Whitley walked out to another room in the complex, wide and spacious. Six Knight´s Errant walked in, all armed with melee modifications. Sunshine’s voice came out through one of the bots. “How about we start off one on one but increase the number of opponents with each win? Do not worry about destroying them. Just give it your all!” 

“I’ll move to the observation area to watch the fruits of my investment,” Whitley said smoothly. “Try not to disappoint me.”

Marrow started shooting. At that moment, he believed he did not have a healthier or more deeply felt respect for any object in the universe than this weapon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the note of marrows armor It is ment to look like zeros armor from borderlands but with the hounds helmet from game of thrones it has a heads up display like the masterchief and many more things 
> 
> working on the next chapter will still want any and all your opinions


	5. All the matters of hearts and minds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brand new day starts with the world covered in snow

The fight had begun. Marrow started shooting the machine as it charged. It reacted to his shots, blocking them with its blades. They were closing the distance. Marrow fired an ice bomb at the legs of the machine. It was not fast enough to stop himself being frozen in its tracks. Marrow moved circling it and firing till the robot was scrap.

“WELL DONE! BUT SO THAT YOU KNOW THAT ONE WAS IN AUTO PILOT! IN THE NEXT TEST I WILL BE CONTROLING THIS ROBOT!” The professors voice rumbled in the speakers. Two of the Knight’s Errant began marching to the starting line. 

Another round began. Noth robots moved in opposite directions, trying to cut Marrow’s attention. This was not the first time Marrow was in such a situation. He changed his rifle into a boomerang and threw it at the knight on his left. he pointed at the robot and shouted “SIT.” 

The machine stopped directly in its tracks, allowing itself to be cut I two by Marrow’s weapon. Instantly switching his focus onto the other knight, he Begun to close the distance with his weapon still transformed. The machine closed the distance and shifted into melee mode. The machine was fast and hit hard. Marrow went on the defensive, parrying and blocking its blows. The machine inched closer and manage to hit Marrow twice. It kicked Marrow using the force to launch itself away from Marrow. Marrow was not going to allow it, firing his grappling hook. He grabbed the Knight Errant and slammed it on the ground.

Even though he had taken two direct hits without blocking and no bracing for it. But his heads-up display showed that his aura had barely been damaged. It was still nearly full. This armor was really something else .

“SEEMS LIKE THE GOOD HUNTER HAS FINALLY FINISHED WARMING UP! LETS GO FINAL ROUND!” The speakers boomed with a hint of childlike joy. 

The remaining three Knight Errant moved towards the line. One of the robots had a different loadout. Instead of the straight blades the others before him had it had an axe with a tube that looked like a cannon.

Marrow did not waste any time and shot the grappling hook at the knight in the middle, launching himself towards it shooting it to pieces. he landed on top of it. 

Marrow cut into it with the underside of his rifle and fired a wind bomb at the robot on his left the one with the axe-hand. It was knocked across the room, transforming his weapon to fight the robot on his right. Marrow started attacking it but unlike the one that was on auto pilot, this one was fighting defensively, making time. Marrow cried out when he was hit on the back by a bolt of energy fired from the Knight’s axe-hand.

Marrow decided it was time to be even more aggressive. Pacing around behind his current opponent while dodging beams of energy, Marrow put himself in a position where he no longer was fighting in two fronts but only in one. The robot in front turned more aggressive. Marrow met its shift in mood in turn. 

After a short clash of blades, Marrow hit the robot with a headbutt. Thanks to the helmet and his aura, he felt nothing. With his opponent damaged, Marrow cut twice making several uneven pieces. 

Two down. One to go. 

The last knight changed from firing the usual blue beams of energy to black. Marrow dodged the shots and saw that on impact, they solidified into a stone-crystal substance. Marrow figured the Professor wanted to deal with his mobility. He had to shut that plan down. 

Changing back his weapon back into rifle form, Marow fired, aiming for the hand cannon. After a few volleys, he destroyed it and went in for the kill. Attacking on the blind spot of its right-side, Marrow cut off its legs and smashed it to the ground. 

Marrow felt great. He felt like today was a brand-new day and he could do anything. He retracted his helmet and took a long breath, smelling victory. It smelled great.

Whitley walked into view, clapping slowly. “You failed to disappoint. Congratulations. I think it is time for lunch. Mrs Sunshine managed to get us food.” 

The professor’s wife, whom Marrow now knew was the head engineer of the facility, had brought 4 Mistral style lunchboxes with chopsticks. Marrow had to ask for a fork. He just could not use chopsticks, no matter how hard he tried. 

Samuel told him all about his new armor, from how it had a voice modifier that would make him sound intimidating to frequency jamming device inside it. Marrow also got a long lecture on how the new Atlesian knights were quite more advanced. From the arms and legs being replaceable to being equipped with different kits. These machines with a simple change of its arms and legs could be turned from military to civilian purposes. 

Sunshine also talked Marrow’s ear off about this new project he had received from Whitley to make Marrow robot dogs that would obey his orders. They’d be armed with razor sharp jaws that could use dust and dust cannons on their tails, telling him that he would receive them and Whitley would teach him how to use them.

Mrs. Sunshine eventually managed to pry her husband off Marrow and they finished their food in peace.

Afterwards, Whitley and Marrow left the factory and went to the SDC main office in Atlas. Whitley mentioned he would have some meetings and asked Marrow to “put on his helmet and look menacing”. The first two meetings where nothing to comment about more business talk about the reestablishment of the dust mines and the payments for employees, infrastructure and advertisement.

The head of advertisement was droning on and on. “Sir, the idea of changing the slogan is simply preposterous. To remove the old slogan and any appearance of you or your father seems like an extreme measure. If I remember correctly, your father once said ‘that as long as the company is headed by a Schnee, this slogan must remain and the face of a Schnee with it’.”

Whitley kept his poker face. “To me, the changing of the slogan is necessary for the changes we are making. I hope you understand.”

The door slammed open. Marrow nearly drew his weapon as he recognized who had opened it. It was a man he knew … and hated. 

He was still dressed in that ridiculous purple dress uniform with blue thread, his immaculate short blue hair. That near comical handlebar mustache with a straight goatee was still there. Whitley had signaled Marrow to remain calm when the boy saw he was agitated.

“Well then, it seems that the meeting is adjourned,” Whitley addressed his employees. “I will send you a task to do later. We need them ready before next week. Understood? And it will be your main priority.” 

The head of advertisement left the door, having been taken off balance.

The man, flanked by two soldiers, stood there with his hands behind his back, a big heavy axe on his belt

“I was not expecting my meeting with the Atlas Military representative for at least one more hour. I was also expecting to talk to my sister. How is the general anyway?” Whitley said inquisitively. 

“The general is a busy woman. She has tasked me with this,” the officer said with an air of self-righteousness and arrogance. 

“I see. May I have your name and your rank?” Whitley deflected

“Colonel Lilac Cobalt. And I answer to sir and Colonel Lilac!”

“This are the terms the general has told me to negotiate with you,” Cobalt said, passing Whitley a small folder. 

Whitley opened the folder and examined the document within. His face remained still for many moments before he wheezed loudly, pale cheeks colored pink. 

“Colonel Lilac, I’m sure that my sister understands that the SDC is a business, not a charity towards the Atlas military,” Whitley said.

“Yes, but as you can clearly see at the top this requisition order will gain you an IOU for the dust that will be given,” Lilac stated

“An IOU that is way below the normal market price and with no apparent date of payment,” Whitley said flatly. 

“These are the terms of the general and the Atlas Military has given. You should accept them.” 

“I’m sorry, Colonel, but these terms are not acceptable. I would suggest that if you wish to procure dust for the general, you should give me more equal terms,” Whitley answered coolly.

Marrow saw the Colonel smirk and thought things might get ugly soon. He started to shift into a fighting crouch, making Whitley react and held his hand up, telling Marrow to halt.

“Boy,” the Colonel said, overbearing and condescending, like Marrow’s elementary school teacher, “I’m sure you know that the atlas military protects the people but there are so many things to protect. We sometimes can be slow to respond. It would be a shame if one of the SDC’s establishment were to be attacked by grimm, a desperate group of Faunus, or even bandits, with the military response being delayed. It would be a damn shame if the only thing the military could do is pick over the rubble.  
“You should not think of these orders as an economic transaction but as a donation towards the greater good also for your safety and wellbeing.” 

Whitley became crestfallen, face crumpled in grief. But to Marrow, there was something superficial about it, as though Whitley was on a theatre stage. Whitley gave the Colonel a sly smile.

“Well, when you put it that way, I’m sure to donate to the Atlas Military. Tell General Schnee that she can expect her dust in a week,” Whitley said with a simple smile that seemed to hide nothing but ‘good intentions’.

With his ego fed, Lilac left with both soldiers moving behind him. 

After the door was closed, Whitley looked at Marrow and sighed. “Marrow, let’s have that heart to heart we talked about. I’ll order the staff to bring us something to drink. What do you want? Coffee or something else?”

Their food had arrived it was strange to eat in this fancy office but Whitley insisted. Marrow had asked for a burger and fries with a soda and hot coffee. His employer had ordered a vanilla milkshake and a variety of desserts.

“If you think I’m going to do what that fucker Lilac told me to do you are just plainly wrong.” 

Marrow nearly choked on his coffee. It was the first time he had heard the kid swear. He was sure he legally could not swear.

Whitley took another sip from his milkshake, pleased with its sweetness.

“Wait. If you don’t give the Atlas military that dust, they won’t buy your weapons and robots. What are you planning to do with them?” Marrow asked surprised at the fact his employer might not be going to sell all that military grade hardware for profit.

Whitley obviously faked an expression of shock. “Marrow, my good huntsman, if I’m not going to sell it then the only option left is to use it for my own purposes.”

Whitley changed the subject. “You seemed to have history with that Colonel Lilac Cobalt. Care to explain?”

“That asshole is the reason why I was kicked out the Atlas military. I don’t put too much of the blame on your sister but still she stabbed me in the back,” Marrow grumbled.

“Care to elaborate?”

Marrow swallowed. “You see … Your sister Winter has never been the most popular around the Atlas military. Cold, stubborn and incredibly headstrong. You know your sister better than me but she was Ironwood’s protégé. Any problem someone had never came to anything. That was until Ironwood resigned and made her general.  
“The floodgates opened. Everyone knew there would be insubordination, disobeying orders and general mayhem. We needed the military to run smoothly but that would be hard … unless another very well-respected officer put in a good word for Winter.  
“Sadly, that officer was Lilac Cobalt. Don’t get me wrong. The man is a great solider and a good officer -- follows orders, gets results. But he is a jackass. He is impossibly proud, extremely patriotic, thinks he is superior to everyone, and the concept of humility is impossible to understand.  
“He always had it out for me. I’m almost sure it was because I am a Faunus, saying that I should not have the rank and respect I had, That I should only do grunt work, instead of my current task and shit like that. He asked to be promoted his service during the battle of Atlas and for the general to kick me out of the military. In the end she caved in to his demands and that’s how I’m here.”

Whitley’s response was to remain silent, deep in thought. 

“If you are asking me to help you in a military coup, I’m out,” Marrow said. 

“Well, it is not a military coup or anything so extreme and stupid. I am merely offering an alternative to the people of both Atlas and Mantle,” The boy replied, bringing a chocolate to his mouth. 

“As we talked about in the morning,” Whitley continued. “People do not feel safe at the moment. They are afraid and think the Atlas military are not doing a good job keeping them safe.” 

“The economy is ashes at the moment. Unemployment rates are high and many of the previously successful businesses are near bankrupt. Huntsmen and huntresses supposedly the most noble of our society are desperate enough to steal from the Atlas Military.”

“Yeah, things are terrible and it’s not going to get any better,” Marrow summarized. “Your point?”

“My point,” Whitley repeated with a flourish of his hand, “is we are going to fix it our own way. “The SDC is in a uniquely great position to be able to make some radical and positive changes to the current state of affairs.” 

“… How? I don’t understand.” Marrow was beyond confused. How could they make changes?

“It all started with Ironwood’s dust embargo,” Whitley began. “My dearly dead father was furious and wanted his form of petty revenge. I offered him a suggestion to push him in a better direction, telling him that the military ran on dust. We were their main supplier but there are others. If we became their only choice for dust, we could gain enough power to make them break the embargo. My father bought most of his competition, deciding to starve the atlas military from this all-important resource.”

“Ironwood was and is incredibly stubborn,” Marrow interrupted. “He wouldn’t get rid of that dust embargo and we had more than enough reserves to last us a while.” 

“Well, what was important was that my father gave me a miniscule amount of power which I used to contact and make a contract with Professor Samuel Sunshine,” Whitley continued. “We collaborated on designs and pleasing Father with more efficient dust hardware and promises -- a more profitable future. A future where he would need no workers in the mines. Where robots would mine without rest or problem … Where he could fire nearly all his menials.”

“Father ate it up. He gave me leeway on those designs. That is how we made the Knight Errant and the rest of what you saw in the factory. After my father’s opportune passing, I begun to make the military grade equipment you saw, buying up as many factories and manufacturing equipment/production facilities as I could. I was able to get everything I initially thought I would and more. They were at an all-time low price with how turbulent the times are. Production commenced a month ago on the original chassis. As you have seen we have our quota has been meet. We are working on a surplus. Nearly all the preparations have been made.  
What is left to do is finish and act.”

“You told me all about how you prepared,” Marrow said, “but it still doesn’t explain what you’re doing.”

“You understand that the Schnee Dust Company that my grandfather founded and my father expanded are the foundation for the Atlas of today? I plan to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps and try to make the world a better place, by using business to make it happen.  
“I have made two new companies a week ago. The first is the Schnee Security Company. The purpose of that company is to protect ourselves and fight any enemies we may have to build ourselves to make sure we the people of Atlas and Mantle are safe. The second company is the Schnee Construction Company. This company will build the future we want, making a larger more advanced and equal society.”

Marrow was struck by what this boy was saying. Whitley was nothing like his father. However, Nicolas Schnee wanted to make the world a better place and ended up making matters worse for almost all Faunus. Marrow had to speak up about it.

“You talk about how the Schnee Dust Company made everything better. The Faunus did not benefit from the labor or industry your father made. The slave labor, the lack of payment and all the hate and pain inflicted upon the Faunus. What will you do to help them?” 

Whitley’s eyes widened, not expecting the response Marrow gave him. Marrow figured that should be expected with the way Whitley was raised. “I have a few ideas but you will need to tell me if they will work. In a sense you will be the one acting on the behalf of all Faunus. You are the main advisor towards solving the inequality between humans and Faunus. This will not be your only duty.”

This kid was going to make history, Marrow now knew. It was up to Marrow to make sure this boy would not be demonized amongst the Faunus. This was opportunity for everybody to change things for the better. 

“I’m convincedwhat is the next step,” Marrow said, throwing a grin at the boy.

“Good thing that you asked. What we need now is more combat oriented personel. If it is not too much to ask, could you help me employ at least 25 up to 100 hunters that you and I can trust for next week?” Whitley asked, passing Marrow a scroll tablet. A document with list of terms and conditions of the SSC on it.

“This is the initial contract for hunters of the SSC. Read it and discuss it with me. There is also the initial payment I’m willing to negotiate to a 20 to 25 percent increase when needed. In that document is also a list of huntsmen and huntswomen I have already contacted. I need your opinion on them. Do not despair, Mr Amin, your efforts will be rewarded in due time.”

Marrow and Whitley returned to the manor. They walked in to be greeted by a servant.

When starting to walk up the stairs, they heard a female voice called out to them. 

“Whitley, can we talk before I leave?” 

They both turned back. Willow Schnee was gazing at her son with sorrow filled eyes. 

Whitley came down the stairs and talked to the older woman. Marrow did not hear what they were saying and jumped at that moment in time Willow unexpectedly took her son into his arms, beginning to sob. 

What happened next was stranger. Whitley actually reciprocated the hug. The Schnee matriarch later was guided out the door by the balding servant with strange eyes while he carried a bag of luggage. 

Marrow did not stay anything about when Whitley walk up the stairs, the boy looked like he was about to cry. Marrow knew better than to pick at his wounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_8yCGGa_no
> 
> This song is for the battlescene at the begining
> 
> Thanks to @Ezroar for editing this work
> 
> https://ezroar.tumblr.com/  
> https://twitter.com/ez_roar?lang=es


	6. The smell of dust in the morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A strange day for the overworked team FNKI

Chapter 6 The smell of dust in the morning

Neon Katt was having a bad hair day. 

She just looked like a mess. Her blue highlights were gone. She had to change her hairstyle from her lovingly done buns to her poofy pigtails; her clothes where truly worn down, the glitter sparkled away; and she barely had time for herself anymore.

A month of continuous combat will surely do this to anyone. 

The rest of her team where not fairing that much better. Flynt had taken to the role off leader, having gained the rank of corporal only two days ago due to how they had managed to take some land away from their enemies. Still, that did not make him happier. He always looked grumpy and or angry or both! Neon barely remembered the last time he smiled …

Kobalt had taken a nasty wound on his face and had left a scar on one of his cheeks from his lip to his ear. Luckily, it looked worse than it actually was, but it twisted his smile into something scary. Kobalt had taken up a new hobby complaining about everything. No one tried to fight with him because he was right. The food was horrible, they barely got time to sleep and repair their weapons. What pissed him off the most was how they were made to be part of the frontline instead of the reserve. Ivory had taken the scaring of his best friend badly and always looked sad, never really talking. It made everyone else worry, sharing concerned glances behind Ivory’s formerly pristine back. 

After all, they’ve heard the somber tales of what happened to some soldiers after sorrow swallowed them whole. 

It was Neon’s turn to stand watch. She started to think about how things where at the moment when they got the deployment orders. They were still in high spirits when they heard about the general plan of a 2-line defense. 

One line being the front and the second line being the reserve. The front line would either defending or prodding the enemy to inflict some casualties or making a push where their enemy was weak. The reserve would move in to reinforce the front when defending towards a large Grimm attack. 

Neon perfectly understood why this strategy was chosen. The casualties were minimal and tiny bits of progress would made over two hours when the front line were ordered to kill all grimm. It meant that the horde was always becoming smaller, and the next wave of grimm theoretically should be easier to deal with. When the front line was attacked, they just had to wait for reinforcements to drive the grimm back. 

Still even if the plan was sound, it was still exhausting to work this much for so little payoff. This was just a part of the job the worst part of the job but still was there anything to do about it. 

It was early morning. The morning sat still, with a calm air blowing through the ruins ahead of her, with no sign of movement. Behind her, she could see the defended area, worn down and certainly past their best. 

While giving a sideway glance, Neon saw an airship. It wasn’t the normal Atlesian airship. IItwas a lot more angular with some side mounted weaponry. This ship was flanked by many more similar ships with some smaller ships, ahead of them, all in formation. 

Neon went to wake Flynt up.

“Neon?” Flynt slurred. “Are the Grimm attacking again?” 

“No,” Neon quickly responded. “Some airships coming near us. You should contact command to see if we have orders.”

Flynt gave Neon a really puzzled look. “Airships … that is strange. I’ll go get confirmation.”

Flynt got up from his bedroll and started talking in his earpiece.

Neon stopped and looked at the airships. Instead of them stopping near their perimeter, they went beyond it. When they reached one of the main parks of Mantle, they started to drop something. 

Neon went to Kobalt’s bed roll to retrieve his binoculars. Kobalt started to wake up and was disoriented, shaking Ivory awake to try and get his bearings. Neon saw as the aircraft where dropping some strange Atlesian knights and some hunters. Some of the knights dropped had treads, instead of legs. The air craft was firing all their turrets, clearing a landing zone.

While watching this spectacle she was hearing Flynt start to shout into his earpiece. “What do you mean they’re not reinforcements?! ? THEY HAVE AUTORIZATION CODES TO PASS OUR AIRSPACE? Are they enemies sir? Negative … What are our orders? … What do you mean, sir? … You can’t be serious.”

Flynt was about to say more, when Neon saw an even larger ship drop off a spider-like robot. some large flashes of light exploded from the weapon system on the mechanical beast.

Flynt grunted and waved his hand, grabbing the attention of his team.

“Well, team,” Flynt started. “We have our orders. Our friends are from a new security company. This section of the front has been ordered on a full-on attack. Pack your things and let’s roll out.”

Having gotten their orders, team FNKI made one last check. Neon put on her roller blades and checked her nun chuck. 

Ivory equipped whip, Kobalt pulled on his gauntlet blades and Flynt just checked if he had enough dust. He was about to run out and had only enough for this mission if he was careful. 

“Time to go,” Flynt said. “Let’s show these chumps how Atlas Academy’s Top Class roll.”

“Are we attacking with the rest of the division?” Kobalt asked. 

“Nope,” Flynt answered. “We’re the vanguard making our way deep into the enemy lines, causing confusion and mayhem.”

Everyone raised an eyebrow. This meant that Flynt was going to somehow disobey this order. They all knew their leader would not follow orders blindly. Now them going in as fast and hard to find out just who started this all-out assault.

They had started to move in the Disco Fever formation. Neon was in front, getting ready to hit the enemy hard and fast. It allowed Kobalt and Ivori who were behind her to attack and flank, if not to protect Flynt behind them where he could cause the most damage and be in the safest position. 

Neon and her team were on the move, passing a through the small barricade that was used for defense when the grimm came a large wall made out of whatever they could find. Now they had moved over it. Neon saw many of the other squads of soldiers they had fought with getting into formation but moving at a slower pace than them. 

Team FNKI had begun the operation, advancing by the ruins of mantle. A small group of Grimm were ahead – 5 Beowolves and two sentinels.

“Neon, get past them and hit them from the back. Everyone else, keep them up in the front,” Flynt ordered

Neon moved forward. The centinel’s were in front and the Beowolves trailing behind them. 

Both the centinels lunged forward. Neon jumped above them and landed in front on of the leading Beowulf. Dodging right, she hit it on one of its legs, breaking it. It fell to the ground neon used this opportunity to advance smashing another in the head and taking the arm of a different Beowulf. By the time she broke through, Ivori decapitated a Beowulf and Kobalt had vivisected a sentinel. As she was about to hit them in the rear, Flynt destroyed the last ones with a powerful trumpet blast.

“KEEP MOVING FORWARD!” Flynt bellowed.

While their advance, they were noticing how most of the flying grimmm were being shot down by those small fighters. A nevermore almost fell on top of neon after it had been shot down.

“Contact!” Neon said, spotting a large group of grimm -- multiple Beowulfs, a few Berigels and a death stalker 

“Neon, get past them and hit them from the back but be careful!” Flynt ordered. 

Neon rushed as fast as she could she hit two of the leading beowolves. The blows did not kill them. It just reeled back while she was doing her routine of dancing around her enemies. One of the beringels jumped and slammed into the ground. Neon avoided the punch it threw out.

That punch hit a beowulf that was behind her, sending it flying. Ivori´s whip hit the beringel in the head, stunning it. Neon used this opportunity to get behind the beast to break its leg. 

It was more important to keep moving than to actually kill the Grimm at this moment. It did not mean she couldn’t hurt the Grimm to make it easier later down the line. 

Neon continued to get past the Grimm when one she heard a shot. One of the Beowulf’s besides her was dead. 

Out of the corner of her eye she saw what could be called Atlesian knights that were behind the group of Grimm. When they seemed about to start fire, she skated out of the incoming crossfire.

After Neon escaped, she saw that the knights, led by a huntress with a crimson dress a giant flail with a big smile to booth. She stood there when the death stalker moved towards the huntress. The crimson woman swigged her flail and the ball went off the chain hitting the Deathstalker in its face. The ball exploded in a large explosion. Many of the robots started to concentrate fire on the death claw. 

Flynt signaled Neon to fall back to him. While doing that, the hired ‘security’ attracted the attention of the Grimm. They attempted to attack the newcomers Flynt signaled the full-on attack. With this, Ivori and Kobalt moved forward and hit the Grimm at the back. With fire support they made short work out of the rest of the grim

The battle lasted for some time after the battle was done. Team FNKI had taken some light wounds they still were in one piece. 

Flynt moved to the huntress, looking to get some answers.

“Hey, thanks for the help. Are you the one in charge?” Flynt asked. 

“No,” the huntress said. “My employer is further ahead, fighting a bigger fight. My orders say to patrol around the hotspot and hunt down groups of Grimm so they don’t move to reinforce. My name is Anastasia Heart. I hope you share your contact code, so we can speak later, maybe hang out I mean it is amazing that.”

Flynt exchanged codes with her and decided to get directions to this big battle. 

The team kept advancing forwards. 

The results of this big fight were the wrecks of robots and many fresher dead Grimm. Seems that the fighting was almost over.there was something that almost looked like a Beowulf, but smaller and, strangely, blue. The possible robot was being flanked by two robot dogs. Holding a rifle, he was facing a Manticore. 

The humanoid robot moved forward while the dogs fired some sort of beam from their tails. A bomb was fired from the robots rifle, blowing the chimera away. The robot inched closer, changing its weapon into a boomerang. It surged to hack it, cutting into its head until the grim stilled and fell to the ground.

“Are you the one in charge?” Kobalt asked

“Sarcastically, I’m in charge. Who’s asking?” the thing they now identified as a person replied. They were most likely a Faunus due to the tail responded to them with a voice that seemed vaguely familiar.

“Corporal Flynt Coal, Atlas Military.” the leader in question said. “I was wondering who you were and what you’re doing here? This place isn’t exactly boasting real estate for sale and last I checked, it’s not duck season.” 

“I do not need to answer that question,” the person in armor said coolly. “You will receive an order from your superiors to soon vacate the area. I suggest you get a head start on getting out of here.” 

“Hey, we’re trying to figure out if the Atlas Military than it needs,” Ivori argued.

“Why don’t we talk some more?” Neon asked, fixing a friendly smile and warm eyes at the stranger. “One faunus to another.” 

“Well, since it is from one Faunus to another,” the stranger said. “You are trespassing on private property, belonging to the SCC. Vacate the area in a timely manner or your superiors will be contacted for your clear dismissal of the laws and regulations of the Atlas Military. If your superiors fail to get you out of here, I will gladly do it for them.” 

Flynt knowing this route of diplomacy was done decided to call Anastasia

After a short conversation he seemed disappointed telling the team that she said she could not tell them anything NDA and all that.

The information that was gotten is that a ¨security company¨ with enough firepower to be compared to a military, had landed in their warzone using some bullshit legal loophole to both take over their warzone and kick them out and there was someone in robotic armor that was the leader of all this hired muscle, but there was someone running things from behind. This person would not reveal himself now would they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey sorry for how long this took IT HAS BEEN A CRAZY MONTH but I hope you like it put all that you want on the comment section within reason


	7. The first drops of the coming storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whitley gives a very important conference to the people of Atlas and mantle to tell them all about how things might change for the better

Chapter 7

The first drops of the coming storm

Whitley was in his dressing room, looking at his wardrobe. He had decided on what suit to wear – a pure and pristine white affair, mostly. A blue vest would add some color but what about the tie? 

Maybe a red tie? His sisters and mother always had red undertones to their clothing. Whitley thought he would be emulating someone else and turned the idea away. A blue tie dark blue that would work. Blue always was best on him out of all the family. 

Now the big question … what color should the handkerchief be? While looking at all his handkerchiefs, he stopped at an orange one. He once knew a girl with orange hair. The girl was so different to himself, she almost lit up the room as if she was the sun. Yes, orange. He could remember what he wanted to be a better person, someone who would make the world a better place, in his own way.

Whitley’s scroll lit up. It was Marrow calling. 

“We cleared half of Mantle,” Marrow’s voice came through the device. “The other edges of the city are still under Grimm control though. Should we push on or make the perimeter and wait for the construction crew?”

“That would mean the Atlas military still has troops stationed with control of a quarter of the city and are trying to encroach on our territory,” Whitley said archly. “You should handle it. I’ll contact Samuel for him to bring you more knights with construction kits and materials via airship.”

“So tomorrow we continue your aura training.” Marrow said

“Yes we will are you actually sure we are making progress.” Whitley responded

“Yeah we just unlocked your aura a few weeks ago and you already control it pretty well soon you might just unlock your semblance. I’m one of the best huntsman in Atlas I should know, if you had started training early on you would already be a huntsman you got lots of surprises.” Marrow said with quite a lot of pride before hanging up

Marrow had been the one to somehow talk Whitley into unlocking and training his aura to a small level of competence. He said that he might not always be there to save him no matter how much he paid him so he should be able to either protect himself to buy time or run away successfully.

The exercise had been grueling Whitley was not that physically gifted as his sisters where and it showed but at least he understood the theory behind aura and semblance he hoped to soon unlock his so he would be able to lower the rate of the training or put a stop to it. 

After ending the call, Whitley gave out a ragged sigh and checked himself in the mirror. He liked this new look. Professional, somewhat slick. All he needed now was to look friendly like his grandfather and imitate that same warm smile on the paintings. Whitley remember all the stories about his grandfather he heard from his mother and father, the man had died a year before he was born so he never knew him. It seemed everyone respected his memory and it might be beneficial to try to be like him. 

Whitley’s reflected smile shocked him on how wrong it looked. It was too forced. It was not him that was trying to smile. Maybe he did not need to look like his grandfather but act like him. Whitley returned to his usual sly smirk. Now this was better.

Whitley moved to leave the room, opening the door with his handprint and all access code to the mansion he had. He had some work done to switch all the traditional, analog locks to electronic ones that required either a keycard or, in his case, a code with a DNA authentication to make to open any door. This was but one of the many changes. Another one was that there were the many Knights Errant patrolling the manor with a few demolishers hidden away in corners. The purpose of them was to keep him safe when Marrow was not in the mansion. 

Growing up a Schnee, with assassination attempts made on his family and board members executed by the White Fang showed Whitley that he was never safe. 

Continuing along the mansion, on the way to the main gate, many of the servants gave Whitley either a small wave or bow. Klein was near stood the gate, for he was Whitley’s valet for the night and was to bring him to the most important press conference of the young man’s life. 

The press conference took place at the gardens of the main SDC office. Most of the press that Whitley had invited were talking amongst each other, fishing for information from each other, and enjoying the food set out for them. 

Looking at in at a distance, the people were divided in two groups. The people of Atlas that consisted of rich entrepreneurs, the media and a few up and coming the members of many politically influential family whether they were rich, or had once held positions of power. The other was made up by a few promising figures in the affairs of Mantle, both economic and political. The mantle press included the Happy Huntress Diaries, a popular newspaper ran by Robin Hill. She could not be here due to her many injuries so she sent a representative in her steed. White hair, green eyes and sheep ears in clear view, Fiona Thyme. Seems the Huntresses wanted a Faunus to ask the hardest questions and find out why Whitley had sent them an invite to an event.

Some of the more hateful guests where regarding Miss Thyme with disgust but no one would say anything with her weapon fastened to her back. 

Whitley watched it all through his scroll, the security cameras relaying the footage to the device. 

Things were going well …for now. The mood was perfect. Whitley gestured to Klein to go ahead with his plans. 

The true event was now beginning. 

Klein led the guests to the conference room where it had been decorated with white blue and red roses. At the front of the room sat two cameras, one belonging to the Mantle press and the other to the Atlas press. 4 rows of seats were situated behind them. A large blue curtain shrouded the stage. 

Klein instructed the guests to take their allotted seats. This caused some confusion for most Atlesians guests as they were usually given front row seats. Some were accustomed to be ignored and put on the back where they would never get to truly listen or ask questions without being confrontational or rude. People started to move around trying to find their assigned seat, some even asking for help in finding it, others giving help unprompted to make sure everything went smoothly. That woman Fiona found it quick, at the front, with the heiress of the Bright Diamond fortune to her left and the leading journalist of the Atlas Post to her right. 

The seating arrangements had been made so that there would be an alternating amount of people from each city. If you were in your seat you would have someone from the opposing city at each side of you. This would make it so people would be less worried about who was next to them and more about the person giving the press conference and what questions to ask. Everyone soon found their seat and started to quiet down. 

The camera crew gave the all clear signal. Whitley looked at his handkerchief, he used his hands to brush his coat to remove any stain off it real or imaginary. Taking a deep breath, he placed himself behind the podium. He pressed the button that would raise the curtain with a forced smile.

Whitley smiled at the group of people most of them seeing if they can see through him instead of at him. This was his moment he would now need to show exactly what he was made of hopefully he was made of strong material. Whitley decided to begin his speech. 

“Hello, good people of Atlas and Mantle. As you may know, I am Whitley Schnee, the newest head of the SDC. I thank you for coming to this press conference. This press conference was made with the intention to give everybody, be it citizen or official, some relief from the storm of misfortune rocking our kingdom.

This morning, most of the Grimm-occupied territory has been liberated. This operation was done by a new Schnee Dust Company Subsidiary -- the Schnee Security Company. I decided to make this company after the Grimm attack that pushed our kingdom to the brink of absolute destruction.  
We were powerless, having to put our faith and lives in the hands of others. It did not matter if those people would take care of us or discard us. It was pointless to do otherwise when there was so little to depend on. I decided we should not be completely powerless anymore. We, the people, should be able to make contributions towards the war effort. I thought about the SDC, the company my Grandfather made that now stands as the foundations of everything we are today. I will not stand idly by and allow those foundations to be destroyed, nor for our future to be destroyed with it. I will work towards a brighter future. A better Atlas and a better Mantle, unified.

Two Schnee Dust Company subsidiaries have been created to achieve this. The Schnee Security Company’s purpose is to fight the Grimm treat and protect our people. The second of these companies is the Schnee Construction Company. It will handle most of the logistical problems and work towards rebuilding Atlas and Mantle to be bigger and better than before. These two companies will lay the roots of the future much like the Schnee Dust Company did before. Its growth will allow those that lost everything in the Battle for Atlas to be able to escape homelessness and poverty, to be able to stand back up on their own and to get farther in life than they could before.

This new future will have safety, opportunity and wealth to all those that join it.”

Whitley took a brief breath to calm himself. A part of him could not believe he just did that. 

“Now that the initial announcements are done,” Whitley added. “I will be taking your questions.”

An uproar exploded in the room, many of the guests in the audience getting up from their seats and hollering for his attention. 

Whitley scanned the audience, trying to pick someone who would ask a simple question. He decided on the member of the Atlas post, deciding to point to him and asking him to state his name.

“John Leek, here with the Atlas Post,” the journalist introduced himself. “My question for you is will the companies be selling their stocks to allow for investment? If so, will the stockholders have any say on what will be the company’s agenda?”

Whitley smile grew a small amount. An easy question, one that would bring quite a bit of investment.

“Yes,” Whitley answered. “Investment will be allowed for stock, but we will only sell around 30 to 40 per cent of the stock. Our companies stock holders will be privy to much of the companies innerworkings and allowed to join meetings to negotiate how the companies can grow. Next question.”

The barrage of people asking for attention came back. Whitley thought it was time move towards the other side of the fence and have a harder question be asked. 

Whitley selected a man in the second row. 

“William Lock from the Mantle Postman here to ask about the reconstruction efforts towards Mantle. Will the Schnee Construction Company allow the people of Mantle to live in their newly reconstructed city? 

“The building effort will not exclude those that were hit by the tragedy,” Whitley said. “They will be given a chance to rebuild their lives with their own two hands. I will offer them a job in the reconstruction effort. This job will include generous pay and housing for them and their family.”

Now to an easy question. Whitley chose the heiress, Amelia Bright.

“Will the Schnee Security company offer their services like the huntsmen and huntswomen do, allowing us to pay for contracts?”

Seems this girl has a different agenda than what Whitley thought

“No. The Schnee Security company will work towards the protection of the people but logistical assets and company VIP’s will be protected with the full extent of our resources. People will be allowed to pay a premium to the company to allow our services to be even better. Think not of it as a donation but as a contract where we will look towards your safety and place resources closer to your home and business.”

Whitley decided that he handled that it was time to go poke the beast. It was time for Fiona Thyme. 

“Mrs. Fiona Thyme. I see the Happy Huntresses got my invitation to this event. Do you have any questions for me?”

“You talk big about how this will be an opportunity for everyone. Reminds me of how your father’s company promised so much and then took those opportunities away. It’s not just that but also the way the SDC has treated the Faunus. Working in dangerous conditions for less than scraps as if they were slaves and stomping down on any and all protests. There have even been accounts of physical violence including branding. Will the SDC under your management do anything to right the wrongs of the past and walk to a brighter future?”

“I will not deny the actions of the past. The people that made it happen are either dead or no longer part of the SDC, but what I can do is make it up and make the best out of this horrible situation. 

“This will require reworking of the structure of the SDC and its subsidiaries. Many talented and hardworking people had been barred from promotions and better pay due to being Faunus. This very morning, I manage to do this for one of my employees promoting her from what was grunt work in the SDC to a position of middle management in the SCC. This promotion also included a five-year bonus as some sort of payment for all she had to deal with. This woman’s name is Laila Witherspoon. I’m sure that if you reach out to her you can confirm this story. This bonus that was given will be given to most of our Faunus labor force. The bonus will work on a case by case basis, depending on how long they have been with the company and their own personal skills.”

Whitley saw the face on Fiona. It was a face of surprise at what he said. It wasn’t long before it slipped into wary skepticism. Whitley didn’t blame her. The SDC had a legacy of unfulfilled promises and empty words, after all. 

Cinder and her “Comrades” had been hiding in the ruins of the outskirts of mantle looking for those that had stolen the relic of knowledge from salems grasp at least that was their mission, Cinder was instead looking to do something big. She had manage to watch the broadcast of this boy making this almost ridiculous claims if she did not know on good information that they where true.

Cinder was strangely fascinated, she felt like she understood what he wanted. there was more of this boy than what Watts had told her. With what Neo had told her, the boy told the truth about taking back most of mantle. 

This boy was not someone to ignore. Cinder now saw him as one of the big players in Atlas, an incredible future asset … as long as she could bring him in. She needed to manage to make him loyal to her and appear good to Salem. 

With this, Cinder could stand to gain more power and retrieve the relic she lost to those children. She still needed to know where the Beacon relic truly was. That Relic of Knowledge was her ticket to the rest of the relics and more. 

Cinder smiled. She had the best possible bargaining chip. All she needed now was to make the offer for a meeting. Cinder’s smirk grew as she pulled out the large lighter engraved with a snowflake and saw how perfect its flame was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY FOR THE WAIT EVERYONE i had a lot of IRL things to deal with the next chapter is already in progress if you have any questions put them in the comments for I really want your feedback on this fanfic.


	8. Sticks and Stones Can’t Break My Bones but Your Words have hurt me

Chapter 8: Sticks and Stones Can’t Break My Bones but Your Words Can

General Winter Schnee was sitting in her office chair. The office was spotless – the very image of organization and efficiency. 

Winter had made quite a few changes to the décor. The chairs were more comfortable with feathered cushions. The new decorations included a framed painting of the new General in her youth. It had been commissioned by her father after she had won the singles Atlas tournament as an Academy student. The painting showed her with a sword drawn on her leg looking down and a crown of ice on her head. She had thought the painting gone, never to be seen again, after she had left the Schnee manor for the military. The room gave her the atmosphere of being strong she could not show any weakness at the moment. This was important for she needed support, even at this moment.

The story on how she had come into possession of this painting was a strange affair. She had gone to a meeting with Johnathan Forte, the head of a successful Atlas-based law firm. He was going to join the next council election for a seat. When she visited, he had three paintings of her. All of them were made while she was still in Schnee manor. Inquiring about it, Forte only had this to say:

“When I saw them being sold, I decided to buy them. It will stay as a reminder that you are always watching and protecting us.” 

Empty platitudes at best. In the end, the deal they had made was that she would support him in his campaign and he would not oppose her for running for her second council position. Jonathan had asked her to take one of his paintings as a sort of handshake to seal the deal. 

Winter then chose the painting that would hurt her the least to think about. 

The situation with the council was terrible. Most of the council was dead or, in the case of her father, presumed dead. When Ironwood resigned, she did not inherit both of the council positions. The ex-general held only one, the other one would be chosen by election. The only real requirement to become the new headmaster of Atlas Academy would be the candidate had to be a licensed and active huntsman. She was in the running and would fight hard for the spot. But her chances were not ... favorable. 

These next elections would be monumental for her if the people that filled the council would either oppose her at every turn. It had to be her in that second seat no one else should have it if she was going to run thing smoothly .If she lost it would mean all the recovery plans she had planned, all the sacrifices, everything would be for nothing …

With both the package that contained the crystal in her hand she had received this morning and what her ‘brother’ had said on the news showed Winter a worrying threat to her plans. 

And the note attached to the package did not exactly fill her with confidence. 

‘Dearest Sister,

I hope you are well. I heard from your oaf of a colonel that you were in need of a gift of dust. I have decided for now to give you some charity hope this serves you the next time you would fight Weiss. I heard she was still a fugitive. You must be so proud of her. Hopefully, next time you need something from me, you do not threaten me like your brute of a ‘colonel’ did. Instead, come with an appointment and offer worth my time. 

Yours truly,

Whitley Schnee, CEO of the Schnee Dust Company’

Winter had included the SDC as an integral part of her plans for recovery. The army ran on dust. What was more pressing was that most of their reserves were gone. They needed a dust supplier – fast. The SDC was their only choice.

Winter had sent Colonel Lilac Cobalt to serve as an intermediary, meant to prevent any of the Schnee siblings’ bad blood they had from interfering with the potential deal.

Winter had thought she had chosen correctly.

Clearly, she was wrong.

Colonel Cobalt was a good solider. Even if she did not support or accept his ideas on the Faunus, when discussing Marrow’s punishment, he admitted the Faunus do have a place in atlas and in the military. Just not at the top. They had to remain away from a position of authority. They should not be allowed to hold it for they might try to get revenge for … past misdeeds, short tempers and long memories.

She had needed Cobalt to put in a good word to keep the army from insubordination or even worst outright mutiny.

Still, the man seemed like an obvious choice to meet with Whitley and strike a deal.

This made the situation even worse. They needed that dust. Winter’s forces were running about a third of their full capacity to try to slow down their current rate of dust usage. At this rate, they would be out of dust in a matter of weeks.

Winter stared at the dust crystal that was on the middle of the desk. A perfectly cut blue hued crystal with a small glow. It was cut so sharply, it gave strange distorted reflection of her face.

The doors opened suddenly. 

In came, Colonel Cobalt looking as proud as a peacock, smiling widely. Even though his uniform had some dust on, it seemed he did fight on the frontlines today instead of getting a clearer picture of the situation for her. 

The colonel gave a perfect salute before moving closer to the chair that Winter had offered him.

After the colonel sar down, Winter let silence consume the room. She wanted to see if he knew just how bad he had screwed up or if he was ignorant of his terrible mistake. 

The simple smile he had did not truly fade, even in this awkward silence. It would appear he was ignorant of the current situation of the Atlas military. 

“So, Colonel did you watch the news?” Winter asked coolly.

“Yes,” the colonel responded, “and may I be the first to announce I’m happy that we have your brother to fight alongside us.”

Winter suppressed the scowl that threatened to come to her face. “Colonel, do you know why I called you here?” 

“I believe you called me here to talk about our next move. Possibly you are asking for my advice on what that move should be,” Lilac said with visible pride.

“Not exactly. I mean to talk about your meeting with the head of the SDC and its results.” 

“Ah so we have finally received, the first dust shipments. I mean, it took trying negotiations but I managed to get our first shipment for free!” Lilac boasted.

“Yes, you are correct. You can see the results of your efforts right. Here.” Winter threw the dust crystal at him, the Colonel deftly catching it. “This is the dust shipment.” 

“This crystal is of excellent quality,” Colonel Cobalt said. “If the rest of the batch is like this, I’m sure we will be able to scale up our operations.” 

“Therein lies the problem. That is the entirety of the dust we received.” Winter said coldly. 

The Colonel’s expression changed into one of shock. “What do you mean? There should be more. I’m sure of it! He said he would support us in the press conference.” 

Winter passed him the note that came with the dust. His expression erupted into one of fury upon reading it. 

“WHY THAT MISERABLE SPOILED BRAT!” Cobalt exploded. 

“I mean to talk to you about what you said to my brother. I wish to understand where you failed so I may be able to salvage this situation.” Winter tried to remain calm, however she could not ignore the sting of irritation beneath her skin. 

“Well, I thought that your initial offer was too high to have materials we should rightfully be able to requisition freely,” Cobalt explained. “I decided that a lower offer would make sure that the rest of the budget could be used for other tasks.” 

“That still does not explain what he meant when he mentioned you threatening him.” Winter prodded, narrowing her eyes. 

Cobalt went on. “When that boy rudely denied my offer, I felt he did not know his position, I told him that he would not survive without our protection and we could get our dust by gathering it from the ruins of his mines and factories. I suggested that he give a donation of dust as a gesture of good will so we would help him protect his interest and we would be able to talk about more generous terms in the future.” 

“If I understand, you offered terrible terms to my brother and when he rejected them, you tried to extort the dust out of him.” There was a beat of silence to emphasize the levity of Winter’s words. “This … will be a harsh set back but we may be able to salvage the situation … hopefully.”

Hopefully. But even hope could die in the direst of circumstances.

“General,” Colonel Cobalt addressed Winter, “if you would allow me to return to talk with your brother, I will convince him to hand over the dust we require and do it under my original offer. I shall break him of this impertinence and--” 

“YOU SHALL NOT DO ANY OF THAT UNLESS I ORDER IT!” Winter boomed, stepping forcefully towards the fool. 

The moment winter raised her voice cobalt’s expression changed from one of calm to one of fear and surprise

“You overplayed your hand and put us in a precarious position,” Winter hissed. “I can no longer trust you to fix this mess that you put us in. Lilac, you are a solider. You need to lead the troops at the front. That is your role, if you wish to regain my trust.

The Colonels expression changed once more to one of despair

“Now.” Winter took a deep breath, forcefully bringing air back inside her lungs. “I need you to move down to the ground and reorganize the troops with the recent gains by the SSC. We need to appear operational. I want one ship a day to fly into Grimm-controlled territory and do a small to medium scale extermination mission extract our operatives from dangerously lethal situation. Cobalt, you are a good solider. I hope you do not fail me in this task I’m giving you.”

“YES MA’AM” Colonel Lilac Cobalt said as he saluted her general with a new expression of patriotism and loyalty.

“We must not fail our efforts must not fail.” Winter said with ultimate finality. 

  
Ruby was worried. To be honest, she was constantly worried about too many things. Weiss’ sister, Winter, the new general, having kept the manhunt for them ongoing. Salem, the Queen of Darkness come alive, Ozpin’s ex-girlfriend, was still trying to take down the kingdom. Ruby struggled with the odds against her and somehow was still alive. She even had gotten quite a few scars and nearly lost a leg in her last fight against Cinder. Thank goodness Qrow, Oscar and Penny were there or she might be dead.

For them, the battle had been hell after she and the rest of her group made it impossible to try to abandon Mantle. Ironwood had to go all in on the fight. The battle of Atlas had moved to a slow defeat but Oscar and Penny had decided on a bold move to try to make the biggest difference possible.

It was what one might call a suicide mission – destroy the Monstro Whale from the inside. Using a bomb with a storage room’s worth of dust and Oscar using his newly found magical abilities to amplify it. Pietro had designed the bomb to once armed be impossible to defuse and gave Penny a remote detonator. A small team of Penny, Ruby, Qrow and Oscar would board the grim while the Atlas military kept it busy. They managed to get on with small resistance and planted the bomb, running before the countdown timer reached zero. 

Tyrion and Hazel intercepted them before they could leave. Ruby and the others fought them, trying to escape before time ran out. Qrow told them to run away and he’d hold Salem’s minions. That dream was dead in the cradle, however, with the getaway ship already stolen by Neo. 

With no other option, they jumped off the Grimm. Penny grabbed Oscar and ruby while they fell. Oscar used his powers to make a shield that would protect them from the Grimm. 

By the time they landed, the explosion already went off. 

The explosion was massive and afterwards there was an earsplitting scream that Ruby knew had to come from Salem. Near their landing zone, the Relic of Knowledge landed on their way back to safety Ruby decided to grab it. Oscar said it still had 1 question in it seems neither cinder or Salem used it.

After that crazy stunt, the group decided to lay low in a warehouse that Pietro had secured for them. A routine eventually set in – training, watching the news and rotating shifts for guard and patrol duty. 

This time, it was Ruby and Penny’s turn, doing their rounds when penny picked up something massive in all the radio chatter, It seemed like the Atlas military performed an all-out attack. There was something off. The ships had different designs and the automatons were not military-issue. 

Due to all the, new found military personel their normal patrol route took three hours to complete. They needed to sneak around all the chaos and mayhem. Once they reached relative safety, Oscar and Weiss were on guard duty, hiding in two separate alley’s near the warehouse.

“Hey, Oscar” Ruby called out as she found the farm boy, hiding in a dumpster.

“Ruby!” Oscar jumped. “Stop sneaking up on me! This is like seventh time you’ve done this.” 

“You should always expect me to be somewhere around you,” Ruby replied playfully. “Need to keep an eye on our wizard.” 

“What do you think happened?” Oscar asked. “I saw a lot of airships and even heard them shooting.”

“I don’t really know. They seemed to kick out most of the Grimm.” Ruby answered.

“Where’s Penny?” Oscar asked

“Oh, she went to get Weiss. We need to move back to the underground warehouse.” 

On their way back, they saw Weiss and Penny waiting for them at the entrance inside the ruined warehouse. Penny keyed in code to open the door and they moved inside of what was ‘home’ for now. 

Their warehouse only really had 3 rooms 1 for the bathroom and shower, a small kitchen and a living room with a TV 1 large room they used as a sleeping quarter the entrance was in the living room 

When they arrived they saw their merry band was all gathered in the living room.  
There seemed to be an argument between Blake and Yang against Ren and Nora. 

“We need to do something about this,” Yang said, pointing at the TV. 

” You might be wrong about that,” Nora responded. “He could be one of the good guys.” 

“From what I remember Weiss said about him, he’s just like his father. Give me a reason they would not scheme together.” Blake said.

“Ok, what is even happening?” Oscar asked.

“People,” Jaune groaned. “They are playing it again.” 

Everybody’s attention was brought the attention back to the television that had been muted turning the volume back on

The news reporter reported dutifully, summarizing the press conference. For the most part, Ruby was unsure how to feel about this. It seemed that Whitley was helping in the fighting by attacking the Grimm, but with the increased security they might get found out . 

“What was the argument again?” Ruby said, trying to clear her confusion on why there was an argument.

“Ruby, Blake has a hunch that brat might be working with Salem or Cinder and I say we need to act upon it,” Yang said with bravado, smashing her fists together at the last word.

“So …” Ren began, “are you suggesting that we kill a boy out of an unverified hunch only you and Blake share?” 

“Maybe kill him or not, but we need to do something like find out if I am correct or not,” Blake said demandingly. 

Blake had been in a foul mood as of late never really seeming happy yang seemed to be feeding her the wrong kind of attention. 

As of late she had been really mad at the idea of laying low wanting to move out and do something. yang was not helping adding her rage, and telling Blake she was in the right when it came to discussing what to do about the SDC. 

Hell, one time they stole dust from the military without telling the rest of the team beforehand. 

“Calm down,” Jaune cut in. “we need to put our heads together and talk this out.”

“Well, for one thing, Whitley wasn’t lying about striking hard at the Grimm outside there was a massive battle. What do you suggest, Weiss?” Oscar said turning his head towards Weiss 

“I never knew Whitley well, but I’m sure if we go to the mansion we might get the answers we want. I thought I saw Klein an old friend of mine on one of those shots of the limo, maybe he can help us.” Weiss said with an almost sad tone 

“I have met Whitley before but I think he would not be working with Cinder or Salem.” Penny piped up. 

“Wait,” Ruby said, suddenly. “Where did you meet him?” 

“Before you arrived in atlas, I met him twice. Whitley was out on a balcony and we spoke a bit, I think I became his friend, but I’m not sure about it.” Penny tried to explain

“I agree with Weiss here,” said Oscar. “We should sneak to the Schnee Manor and look for answers.” 

“Everyone in agreement, raise their hands,” Jaune ordered.

Ruby, Oscar, Yang, Blake and Jaune raised their hands. 

Nora, Ren, and Penny seemed to be opposed to the idea 

Like that, it was decided they would infiltrate the Schnee Manor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT THIS LAST MONTH WAS CRAZY AND THE EDITING WAS QUITE LONG I HOPE YOU WILL RECIEVE THE NEXT CHAPTER BEFORE THE END OF DECEMBER
> 
> as always please place your comments down bellow and give kudos if you like this work


	9. How thick is blood supposed to be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day in the new life of Whitley Schnee

Whitley and Marrow where having breakfast Klein had made omelets and was enjoying the coffee with cream and sugar. 

5 days since the big press conference, there was a buzz around the air for all the things that had happened, the world was now all looking at the SDC, you would not have known that looking at these two men having breakfast.

Marrow was happily eating besides him while giving him information in between bites, telling him about how the first palisade was up and operational working on the next set of walls as per instruction, the heating units had been set up and the barracks where the security force would rest both human and the robots. How there where 4 separate altercations with the atlas military but as soon as they showed the documents and demanded that they leave the premises they ended. 

“It would seem things are going to schedule, so when will the rest of the infrastructure like the civilian habitation units be available?” Whitley asked 

“If we stay on schedule 3-5 days, we will have the civilian habitation finished by then.” Marrow calmly responded 

“Good enough, the nearby SDC facility will serve as the training ground for the new workforce of the SDC, SSC and SCC.” Whitley smiled seeing everything was in order 

“Still why are you talking about a new workforce, most of everyone in mantle has worked for your father’s company. Would it not be fine just to give them their old jobs back with the new pay I remember you once said you wanted to give them a sense of normality.” Marrow said lifting one eyebrow as if to measure exactly what he was going to say 

Whitley looked at marrow and smiled “I don’t just intend to repeat what the past should have been. But to build a better future, for that the knight errant and the rest of our military hardware where build with the possibility of more civilian purposes.” 

“Yes, the robots are rebuilding mantle even as we speak, but I’m mainly asking about the mines.” Marrow interrupted with some annoyance

“Well I’m sure you know about the previous working conditions of the mines.” Whitley answered marrow

“My parents used to work in those mines they managed to safe enough money to send me to combat school.” Marrow said 

Whitley kept smiling and gave him a signal to tell him that there was no offence as he continued “Yes the day long shifts the, large amount of accidents that would leave people dead or crippled, the general health hazards from working somewhere so inhospitable as a mine. What I don’t plan on doing is improving the living conditions of the mines but what is it that goes inside. Older automaton worked automatically and where far too simple to do the task required for mining our newer robots as you call them can do some but not all the task required to keep a mine going. This is part of the reason we made it so they can be remotely controlled, with direct control they can easily preform all required task. We have the robots we have the mines especially those recovered from the Grimm all we are missing are a trained workforce to be able to control the machines to allow for more construction, more security and more mining”

“With this all three companies can continue to operate all day and night. A simple day and night shift will be sufficient as to not overwork our employees. The most important thing here is I serve both as their employer and landowner. This position will be used to reward many of my employees with a lower rent than what will be given to everyone else. I understand that most of their salary will go towards rent and cost of living but I made sure that there would be enough for any other expenses or savings. This will increase profits to allow the salaries to remain high enough to live a safe and happy life once commerce returns rents will naturally increase or decrease depending on the situation at that time. But we have received a lot of investment, we have already sold 20% of SCC and 34% of SSC stock at incredible prices. Doubling our liquid assets or money to put it in simpler terms.” Whitley said with a fire in his eyes

The meal continued as usual with them talking about how well things were going once it was all set and done the maids cleaned the table and they rose up walking towards the main door before they left Whitley stopped marrow from putting on his helmet.

“Marrow I hope to confide with you and receive as much if not all your trust and honesty is there anything I should know about the path I’m walking towards.”

The look Whitley had was one of doubt as if he was sure some information was missing in that head of his.

marrow knew he kept some things from his new boss not only because he did not want to worry him. But also, because he was doing the right thing, if he knew about Salem or the relics and the things Ironwood had done and covered up afterwards he could possibly do some terrible mistake, both for him and the people of Atlas and mantle.

Marrow dropped onto one knee and placed a hand on the boys shoulder 

“Look Whitley I think you have everything figured out but in case you don’t I’m here for you.” Marrow said with a calm smile which Whitley returned 

Marrow had to overlook the building effort down in mantle so Whitley would be accompanied by Klein and shadowed by some of the SSC huntsmen personally chosen by Marrow to try to keep him safe.

Whitley had had a long day some may call it boring it was only noon he had gone down to the old Smith factory or as it should be called the main production facility of the SCC to visit Samuel Sunshine and talk about his instructions. He only found Elanor Sunshine seems her husband had had too much to drink. Spending a small part of the evening with the short girly brunet dropping off the next set of orders which included a survey of the recovered mines to see the damages and how soon could they be made operational.

The rest of the morning he spent in the SDC headquarters meeting the head of marketing she seems to have done her job and improved on the new designs and slogans. His favorite was the slogan for the SCC “Building the future” with the Schnee crest looking as if it was under construction. He quite enjoyed how impersonal it was the complete opposite of his father’s advertisements they were large loud and placed his face everywhere, as if to say you owe everything to me. 

The morning had been productive and Whitley had head for his next meeting well it was not really a meeting it was a lunch invitation to the flying cauldron one of the most popular fine dining restaurant in all of Atlas. 

It was for some sort of business meeting, as the party that convoked it was the bright family, one of their bigger investors with 10% stock in the SCC and 15% stock in the SSC. 

He knew that the father was old and sick so he would be meeting the daughter Amelia Bright. The woman was 4 years his elder and was heir to a fortune that included many of the most luxurious businesses in atlas including this restaurant. 

If you were to ask 5 people how to describe Amelia Bright 4 of them would describe her as beautiful with perfect long wavy blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, her larger than average breast, a smile that would make you sweat and wish to do unmentionable things to her. Whitley in general did not care about how pretty she was he already had his eyes on someone else someone who was cuter than her at least in his eyes, and was beautiful where it counted on the inside. He knew from personal experience the most noble looking people could be selfish monsters.

The waiter meets him at the door, asked to take his coat saying to follow another more senior looking waiter with a set of rabbit ears. Before he gave up his coat he decided to pocket his handkerchief. all preparations seemed to have been made before his arrival.

They moved past the usual seats in the restaurant towards a balcony that was gated by two glass doors with a table set for two beyond those gates.

She was there standing at the edge of the balcony with a white dress with blue highlights with her long blonde hair against the backdrop of the blue sky, she almost looked like a sunset.

When the doors where opened she turned and smiled at Whitley as if he was an old friend.

They took their spots at the table and she started talking

“I’m quite glad you could take some time of what must be a very busy schedule to come have lunch with me.” The heiress said while looking straight at him

“Missing an summon from our top shareholder is not something I plan to do it would make me look like a terrible CEO. Do not worry about your investment you have my word that you shall see profits soon enough.” Whitley responded

“Oh no this is a terrible embarrassment. I never intended this to be a stressful business meeting I merely wanted to know you better.” Her smile quickly faded into a slightly shocked and embarrassed look.

“You may not believe this but you are quite a mystery to almost everyone. People know a lot about the rest of your family, the noble business man Jacques Schnee, our strong general Winter Schnee, and the renegade Weiss Schnee. But the public seem to draw a blank about you.” She gave him a very sly smile while talking up all the people in his family who he despised

“Are you implying I’m too boring of a person for people to try and understand.” Whitley said trying to take her off balance

“Heavens no, my apologies if I offended you. It is just that as a girl I truly enjoyed mysteries everything from detective books, to puzzles and riddles. I loved how they tested my intelligence. Seems that my enthusiasm had gotten the better of my manners. What would you like to eat?” Amelia said as she tried to flatter him

“No offence taken as, to what I would like for lunch surprise me.” He said enjoying the small amount of flattery sent his way 

She snapped her fingers with made quite a loud sound from a seemingly soft hand the senior looking waiter the one who had rabbit ears came close she gestured that she wished to whisper to him after some mumbled whispering the rabbit Faunus servant left without saying a word.

“I mean have you read what the tabloid magazines have been writing about you. If I had a large number of people searching for any trace or lead to try to figure out who you are and publish it. I would be both flattered and appalled.” She said this with quite some theatrics behind it.

Whitley had indeed read some of those tabloids and was abhorred at what some wrote there.

Some of them where just meaningless speculation, others where stretching the definition of a relevant source. With the worst one describing him as “The most eligible bachelor of both Atlas and Mantle.” which was strange since it was still a year and a half till he came of age.

After a short pause she decided to continue “I mean they are comedy gold, there was this one where they interviewed your kinder garden teacher to try to uncover who you are.”

Whitley had to give a little chuckle at that

“Yes, you are right some of them where quite funny but others where baseless rumors and some of them could be called slander.” Whitley responded with a bigger smile than before

“Now if I was trying to describe myself, I would say I am a visionary, constantly thinking towards the future for the past can’t be changed and even if I’m shaped by it in the present I alone choose who I will be in the future.” Whitley allowed himself to say it with pride

“Since I just honestly described myself I would hope you return the favor.” Whitley said 

“I would describe myself as an optimist and an opportunist. Optimist since I always try to find the best out of any situation, and an opportunist for when I find a good opportunity I will examine it and take it. I hope for my wellbeing and for greater and greater fortune in my future.” Amelia said with that wide smile that made Whitley think he was being pandered to

During the conversation their waiter arrived to serve them water and brought them their meal along with a bottle of wine and two glasses set on the table for them 

The meal was A rich buttered steak with steamed greens, an extremely expensive lobster with bread and caviar.

“When you told me to surprise you I decided that you should have the best the house has to offer.” Amelia said in an extremely smug tone as she clapped her hands

The servant opened the bottle and filled her glass Whitley then made a signal to the Faunus servant that he would not partake on the alcoholic beverage

“Why are you not going to drink the wine, this vintage pairs quite nicely with the meal.” Amelia said with a large hint of disappointment 

Whitley decided to respond with half the truth “No thanks I’m still too young to drink in a year I might accept the offer.”

“I don’t mind we are all friends here I’m sure you would enjoy the wine its quite sweet.” Amelia insisted and she would not be turned down

“If my eldest sister heard about me drinking while being underage she would be disappointed and give me a good long talk. I would rather avoid that.” Whitley said while thinking that Feigning any relationship with Winter would be a good move for this conversation 

“Very well If it would anger the general then I will have to remove my invitation to drink this fine vintage.” Amelia said with quite an exaggerated flair.

While they ate the excellent food, a small silence had fallen on the table some small talk happened but nothing much.

The silence was interrupted when stage by stage Amelia stopped smiling and seriously looked at Whitley.

“Mr. Schnee, I have the suspicion that you would be supporting General Winter in the upcoming election for the seat and position of Headmaster of Atlas academy.” Amelia said with a far less cheerful tone

“Yes, I plan to support my Sister in the future, I plan to publicly endorse her campaign” Whitley lied with every word that came out of his mouth

“Well one of the main reasons why I wanted to invite you was that I wished to be able to persuade you to help another candidate in her campaign for that same council seat.” Amelia looked directly in his eyes and gave an awkward smile

“Who might this mystery candidate be for their policy would have to be incredible to try to distance me from my sister.” Whitley gave a smirk

“Well she is my aunt, Lilly bright. Before you say anything about despotism she was the one that put the idea forward I’m only helping her. My father is sick at 69 years old and she is only 31 almost half his age. Before you ask my father married quite late and my grandfather remarried a younger woman. That there should explain my complex family history.” Amelia said in a completely neutral tone

“But her policies are what might convince you to help her she has said that she wants to end the dust embargo and give large tax cuts to help restart the economy.” Amelia said with much more enthusiasm to try and sell Whitley this idea.

He already had a plan for the election endorse candidates that where neutral and help them enter there to make sure a large part of the chairs in the council would not oppose his actions with the SDC and its subsidiaries but this might be even better.

The Bright family had quite a lot of influence and the chainsaw lily as she was known around huntsmen circles was one of the most successful independent Huntresses around partly because the bright family always had high paying jobs lined up for her. 

If he cut a deal with her he would be far more influential since he could help make future laws that would benefit him and by proxy anyone he might help along the way. To be one of the most influential people in all of Atlas, but was it the right time to say yes, could he bargain himself into an even better deal. What if she would betray him when the time came. Before he said yes or no he needed more information he needed to meet this chainsaw Lily face to face.

“Your offer seems interesting but I know my sister she has yet to ask me to endorse her or help her she is quite confident she can win this election. After all she is a great hero to Atlas and is now general she is an obvious choice, this would make your aunt the underdog I would love to hear what she has to say about her strategy if all three of us and one of my closest advisors where to meet we might come to an agreement.” Whitley said with his sly smile bigger than ever

The rest of the meal was Amelia talking all about her aunt and some of the stories about her.

From what she told him she was quite the daredevil brash a lot less courteous than a usual lady from a rich family, the definition of a tomboy.

The best story she told was when her father and her vacationed in vacuo. They went into a bar and out drank 4 hunters in a drinking competition. It would seem that her father and aunt where close as siblings should be. 

Maybe Amelia or her aunt could be a friend…… maybe if circumstances allowed it.

This last story made him feel that empty feeling he sometimes felt as if he was at the bottom of a pit and it was all darkness but for the bright sky up above, knowing he could not climb out of that pit. 

Even while he felt this he laughed and smiled. Seems that was one of his most remarkable talents, lying to everyone even himself. 

The rest of the day where unimportant meetings when he arrived in the afternoon at the mansion Marrow was waiting for him in his full armor talked to the rest of the 4 huntsmen that had made his temporary security detail he asked the lead huntress, Anastasia Heart to write up the full report for the day and send it to him before first hour. 

Whitley was sad for now it was the worst part of his day physical training with marrow. The training lasted a grueling hour made up of running, stretches and a tiny bit of self-defense strategy. Whitley knew full well that he was less physically gifted than both his sisters and would never truly compare to them but marrow had talked him into it and he could not say he wanted to quit at least until a month or two passed.

When training was over there would be a small dinner prepared by the house staff Klein would not be inside the mansion at that hour he would be with mother to make sure she was okay. 

When dinner was finished he and Marrow would go to the now empty and locked ballroom to practice his semblance.

During the day since they had begun training Whitley found out he had the family semblance for he had managed to begin to make a glyph the attempt was unsuccessful. But as marrow said it was progress.

2 weeks of training and he almost had it he almost could make a glyph and not just a basic one but a summoning one. 

Whitley had his eyes closed with his hand extended breathing slowly and then the glyph began to appear.

He pictured the family crest the symbol of the glyph he focused hard on it as if to trying to not think about anything else he worked hard his skin felt both cold and burning hot. He had to keep focus, he could not let it end there, he had to do it he was actually finished with it, now to activate it.

The moment he tried to make the design of the glyph to summon the manikin he had in mind when it shattered into a million pieces Whitley cursed when it happened and felt completely exhausted breathing heavily.

“Nicely done you have done incredible progress how about another try you almost got it. This time you managed to complete the glyph now it is just making sure it stays solid.”

“WELL THAT IS FUCKING TERRIBLE IT SHOULD HAVE NOT BROKEN” whitley found himself screaming even if he was exhausted strangely enough he did not even mean to speak it

e  
“There is no reason to be so upset especially as you are making progress at an incredible speed it took me a year after I unlocked my aura to even find out what my semblance was and took a few months before I could use it correctly.” Marrow said trying to cheer him up

Whitley responded while trying to breath normally “Yes but you never had such a head start like I did. I should already be able to use the basic glyphs.”

“Head start? what do you mean head start I only unlocked your aura a week ago. Did your sisters ever tell you about the semblance and how to use it.” Marrow said with a clearly confused expression

“No Weiss would never talk about it, held it close to her chest and even told me that I would never have it me since I was such a horrible person.” Whitley continued to say with ragged breath that was slowly becoming more normal

“When did she say that?” Marrow asked

“When I was 9 and she was 11 she said that I had stolen one of her dolls when she just left it misplaced, made this huge fuzz about it till Klein found it under her bed.” Whitley said with a calm breath. 

“Did she apologies, for what she said to you.” Marrow said looking a bit sad 

“Weiss apologizing to me, are we sure we are talking about the same person. No, she did not she even screamed at me when I tried to have a tea party with her and her dolls.” Whitley said with a small voice

“Still what do you mean with a head start?” Marrow said trying to change the subject

“I read all about the semblance in a book. It was a book written by my grandfather, when he felt sick he contracted a writer and an illustrator to make it. It had all the Schnee family history and all the things he knew about the family semblance. It was meant for all his grandchildren, one last gift so they could think about him and think fondly of it as some of them would never truly know their grandfather.” Whitley said with a tone of melancholy 

“Father left it on the library to gather dust mother never looked or found it and thus Weiss and Winter never knew of it. I only found out about it during one of mother’s drunken rants. It took me three days of looking in the manor’s library till I found it. At that point in time father did not keep such a close eye on me so I simply took it to my room and read it. That’s the head start I had a book that had encyclopedic information about the semblance and past figures who used it.” Whitley said with quite some frustration 

“Hey still no reason to beat yourself up about it you never truly trained to use it or wanted to be a huntsman and you are doing good progress you do not need to compare yourself to your sisters.” Marrow said still trying to cheer him up

“On the topic of my sisters what is your opinion of them?” Whitley seemed to genuinely ask 

“Winter despite having fired me, I have nothing but the highest respect for she is loyal, dutiful, strong and steadfast. She may be a bit cold but she is nothing but an exemplary huntress and soldier.” Marrow said happily remembering that one mission where they worked together.

“Weiss, I meet for a short time but in that time, I found her to be smug, unprofessional, overly confrontational, hard to work with, extremely stubborn and with a large disregard towards authority. In a sense I found her quite the unpleasant person, she was still a skilled huntress and her friends seemed to like her despite herself. But I think I have a much better opinion of you than her.” Marrow said with some attitude and happily said the last statement

“Thank you I guess it is my turn to share my experiences with them.” Whitley said with a pitiful expression 

“What is there to say about Winter I also respect her strength but everything else I seem to dislike about her. We never really knew each other when I started preschool she was already in combat school and she was never interested in me. When she was in Atlas academy she would always write a letter a week those letters where only ever addressed to Weiss, I once wrote to her I waited for months for a response till a letter from Winter that was not addressed to Weiss arrived I hoped it had been addressed to me but instead it was a letter explaining that she had joined the atlas military. All I really know about my eldest sister I heard from Weiss and I heard quite a few things I did not like, for example that she can be very controlling, hard to please that she rarely shows affection or emotion, that she expected great things from Weiss and constantly helped her along the way. Seems she did not expect or want anything from me.” Whitley said with that same melancholic tone he had used before

“The cold indifference I received from winter was better than the outright hostility Weiss treated me with. Part of it might have been with how Father pitted us against each other, whenever any of us would succeed at anything he would berate and insult the other. He might have thought it to be making a friendly competition but it was disheartening and draining, trying to improve us to gain some sort of advantage. Also, we never understood each other as children we seemed to fight a lot, it somehow always ended with me apologizing either because mother or Klein forced me to or I felt genuinely bad for my behavior. But she never apologized seems she was above trying to make amends with her brother. It was worst the moment she left for Beacon academy having somehow talked father into it, he got angrier and a bit more violent, he would ground me for any supposed insubordination, Hell he once punched me after I arrived 5 minutes late from a piano recital. He rarely hit me but it started after Weiss left for beacon he became more demanding more focused on me, when before it was hard to get him to try and talk to me about anything, now he had become laser focused on my development.”

“At that point I knew Weiss would eventually do something to truly anger him and he would disinherit her, so I knew then that the Schnee family legacy the Schnee Dust Company would fall to me to fix from what father was doing to it. Father was more interested in money than anything else, that is why he made the Faunus work as slaves in terrible conditions just so his profit margins would have a few extra zeros at the end. That is why he built up this image of his family as the perfect talented family so that people would enter Weiss’s concerts so they would pay to hear my piano recitals so they would admire him and get more publicity. I knew Weiss would never be the perfect heiress he wanted so I decided to become that perfect heir as to when she slipped the SDC would be in good hands, that may bring about a better future.” 

“If you think my relationship with Weiss was bad before once she came back from Beacon it turned worst. I do not know what they might teach people in Beacon academy but I hope they don’t make their students delusional maniacs because that is how it seemed when she returned. I once told her not to anger father as both a warning and as a possible counter measure for things to not to get worst for both of us.

“You don’t beat a selfish monster by fighting it especially when he holds the future you desire in its hands. You need to slowly placate the monster lull it to sleep make sure he does not hurt you and when he is asleep meaning, dead you take what is yours and never let go of it.”

“After Weiss caused a scandal at a charity and this action angered father enough that he disinherited her the same way that happened to winter who does she blame but me. Later she talked of restoring the family name by being a huntress.

“That was the moment I thought she was either delusional or just an idiot. Restore our family name by killing a few Grimm in the middle of nowhere while the workers die in the mines. Stopping bandits from attacking a small farm while the SDC decides that their treatment of workers is to nice and they need to increase work hours and reduce their pay. A single person cannot change the world without the means to do so. A single huntress alone cannot win a large battle she needs an army of others to fight with her, the means to change the SDC and build a better future where in her hands and she lost them by not understanding what game she was playing. To have the audacity to blame me for her mistake was almost laughable to be that petty as to later insinuate that even without the means of achieving it she could still change the world because she was a single HUNTRESS.”

“To build a house you need a lot of building materials not a single brick. To fight an army, you need an army not a single soldier. To change the SDC you need the leader of the SDC.” 

“What I have built now. I built in front of father by lying to his face. I managed to hire Dr. Samuel Sunshine by telling Father how advanced and cheap mechanical mining could be, I managed to have him buy out factories, refineries and some of his local competition by telling him that he could starve out of dust the Atlas military and thus gain from their deficit. I even had planned to convince him to do Public works as councilman to try to gain public support against Ironwood it would have worked and made the slums of mantle a much better place. My father’s untimely death was quite the blessing. Now I did not have to delay my plans for the future I could finally act upon what I had already prepared with impunity I was willing to wait before but now it was time to act.”

“I am the head of the SDC and I will build the future we all deserve.” When Whitley finished ranting he did not look like his usual self he looked tired sad, angry and in a sense quite distraught.

Whitley caught up with what he had said and how he tried to regain his composure.

“Marrow I’m sure you heard everything I said and how I acted. How about a bonus to try and keep quiet about all of this for both our sakes?” Whitley said trying to regain the calm he usually had.

Marrow just looked at him with pity and said “No you don’t need to pay me to keep me quiet. I know how to keep a secret. You are doing good kid keep at it, I’m here to advise and protect you. Let’s keep making this future of yours a reality.”

Marrow had dropped to one knee and Hugged him tight Whitley was taken aback by this especially how pleasant it felt. Maybe he could allow himself to indulge in this small happiness of being held by someone who cared about you. 

After training Marrow instructed him to get some rest so he went to his room deciding that was the best thing he could do right now sleep and gather himself.

When he arrived at his room everything seemed to be in order. But something fell eerily wrong as if someone was in the room with him watching him. He found what was with him It was some sort of black bird. Not black as in the color of its feathers but black as in it looked like a Grimm except for its metal wings it looked directly at Whitley with one crimson eye and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Leaving a scroll behind. 

Whitley opened the scroll as to see what was inside it 

The first thing that came out where written instructions telling him to gather a two-way communication devise and place it in a location between Grimm controlled territory and his own to send a single Knight errant to do the deed and to not even think about trying to track it or the people behind this. Once received they would contact him at the other end to discuss the release of his father Jacques Schnee. 

Whitley check the rest of the files on the scroll they were pictures of his father bound to a chair and being gaged they painted the picture he had been kidnaped and was being held for some sort of ransom.

Whitley felt sick not because he had any love for the man he actually hoped he was suffering good riddance to that selfish monster, but because he could not deal with it. All of his contingencies incase his father was alive hinged on two points one for Whitley to have found him first and be able to subtlety deal with him.

Whether it was to poison him, send him to a treatment ward under false charges of madness or to make him fall into a medically induced coma and bribe any doctor treating him to stop him from every waking up.

But he could not do it right now he had already acted boldly and if his father ever knew what he had been doing he would take control back of him and the SDC, erasing everything he had built. 

Father would never care about rebuilding mantle to be better he would only care about squeezing as much money as he could out of the suffering and work of its people. Father would not care about making it right with the Faunus and would go back to his old ways. Father would fire Marrow and Klein, drive his mother away from him never to see her again. Worst of all Father would control his life completely knowing that Whitley had lied to him, making a cage of control which he would never escape from.

What to do??? what to do????

He thought about this message if anyone else might receive it, father would drive them against talking to winter knowing there would never be a ransom there. Weiss was nowhere to be found and if they talked to the media he would know about it. They called him expecting a ransom, threating his father’s life to make Whitley cooperate without knowing that he would rather have him dead.

Yes, that was the answer to ignore the problem completely, they were not threatening his life or the life of anyone he truly cared for. if it was the one he loved the one who gave him hope he would surely have contacted them and gave into their demands.

But it was only father the best course of action was to keep this a secret and act as if it had never happened eventually the ones who held him would understand there would be no ransom and kill him.

The best course of action was to allow the problem to sort itself out even if people saw that he had allowed his father to die.

The only question then would be to ask how thick is blood supposed to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The usual editor for this chapter could not do it so I decided to do it myself as always please give me your critism and feedback in the comments


	10. The way of things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of the characters discover the way of things

Chapter 10 The way things are 

Flynt coal was walking around the barracks accompanies by his teammate cobalt. An entire week had passed after the SSC had retaken most of mantle. He and his team had been recalled to the headquarters.   
They had managed to get some rest hell Neon managed to get her hairstyle back and Kobalt had managed to get his scar fixed making his face less scary, making his smile less crooked and mad. They managed to get some of their morale back.

While walking around the barracks they heard a lot of the rank and file soldiers talking amongst themselves Flynt listened in to some of this conversation 

“Hey have you heard what happened to Greg.” A woman said

“No but you look mighty jealous” The man who was close to her said

“He got a job at the SSC can you believe his luck” The woman continued

“always thought he was a cheat at cards apparently he is just the luckiest person alive.” The man said with an angry tone

“I KNOW RIGHT” the female solider said 

Another group of 3 soldiers where also talking about the SSC but having a different topic

“Man its strange that those new-fangled robots are far more resilient than those we have. Took 3 shoots from my riffle to take one down our only take 1. You know that rifle that that crazy huntswoman lost in a poker game.” a large solider with a boyish face said

“Yeah those strange robots give me the creeps once I saw one of them wave at me after taking down a Beowulf.” A short man said

“Well I am glad they are on our side. Anyway that Schnee boy is still the talk of the town. I read that…” the woman continued talking after Flynt moved away from earshot there was little time to be a gossip no matter how juicy that gossip may be. 

Flynt had been called into the training field by sergeant Harding with a message from a superior officer. From what he knew James Harding used to be an independent hunter but during the last month he joined the atlas military and had been given the rank of sergeant since he was a licensed huntsman. 

Arriving at the training ground they quickly found him he was sparring with another officer. He was barely holding his own with his no-dashi giving ground to the larger man who wielding his axe was mercilessly attacking.

The other officer the large man fighting sergeant Harding was none other than colonel Lilac Cobalt. He was a well know officer for two things for being one of the best soldiers around especially when times get rough and two for being well liked by his men even if he could be quite harsh on them.

The first was in full display as he was masterfully destroying his opponent’s defenses, with harsh, fast and unforgiving swipes of his weapon that he called authority. It was a heavy bladed axe, with a handle that had changed size to be longer or shorter with a large spear head at the top, that could be launched at the end of a metal cable. It was clear to Flynt that this fight was a mismatched one, the sergeant was barely holding on as the barrage of swings kept pushing him back.

When sergeant Harding countered attacked Lilac was more than ready parrying the blow before landing a clean hit with the axe then before his opponent could recover he extended his handle having the spearpoint of his weapon hit him square in the chest, knocking him backwards. The colonel quickly moved forward using the axeblade to hook his opponents’ feet from under him throwing him in the air before with his backswing sending him flying. once Harding hit the ground he tried to get up only managing to get up to his knees before the Colonel got close and extended a hand as an offering to help him to his feet.

“You have improved sergeant Harding I commend you for that.” Colonel Lilacs expression had changed from one of pure concentration to one of grandfatherly good humor 

“Thank you, sir I have taken your advice, since we sparred a month ago but could you please go a bit easier on me.” Harding was still realigning from those blows

“Nonsense I am going hard on you because I want you to improve and to keep improving.” The colonel said it with a very genuine smile

After helping him to his feet Lilac Cobalt looked around him as if to look for someone when his eyes landed on Flynt they stayed on him

“Corporal Flynt coal and your teammate Kobalt right?” The colonel said after having approached them and even saluted them

“I’m glad that Harding called you here as I wished to talk to you, but first would you boys give me a round of sparring I promise I won’t bore you.” As he said that he turned around back to his mark on the sparring circle 

Before Flynt could say anything Kobalt moved forward towards the other mark it seemed at that moment that it would be better to move with the flow than to try to resist it so he went forward towards the mark. 

Thinking that 2 against one might be unfair but still seeing that the officer looked confident.

“A round of combat that last 8 minutes does that sound fair.” Colonel Lilac said with a voice of large enthusiasm and pride 

Kobalt smiled that slightly twisted snarl “Sure let’s see if we can run out the timer.”

Kobalt quickly made readied his bladed gauntlets and looked at Flynt starting to speak “so I will do a careful offense while you attack from a range, I’ll keep him of you.”

The small alarm bell rung out to signify the beginning of the round. 

The senior huntsman took a simple defensive stance and waited for his juniors to make the first move.

Kobalt moved forward shielding Flynt from sight. Flynt prepared to fire a small sonar attack that flew faster but had less punch than his usual barrage, the moment he fired Kobalt dogged out of the way the colonel counter charged seemingly not caring about the bolt of energy going to him he dogged it with a hair’s breadth. 

The colonel moved forward towards Kobalt raising his short-handled weapon swinging down to him Kobalt attempted to dodged but having failed to dodge he blocked the blade with one of his gauntlets and moved to ram him with his body.

But Cobalt was as nimble as a cat spinning around him and aiming for his head with a backswing. Kobalt was just as quick and blocked it.

Both fighters fought around in a flurry of attacks parries and blocks. For the most part it seemed they were on equal terms with a slight advantage going to the older man, he was faster and stronger than what he looked. Many times, hitting each other making the other reel from those blows. 

Flynt was finding it had to get an angle to fire from during their fight. At some point their opponent had his back turned to him. Flynt shoot out a large sound wave towards Cobalt before it hit him he rolled out of the way making it so it hit his teammate instead knocking him back.

Once the Colonel recovered he started charging towards Flynt fired a few more times trying to push him back. Colonel Lilac decided to fire the spike. Flynt dogged it and prepared for a close quarters fight. Flynt saw that Kobalt would soon recover and come help him out. He needed to hold out for a moment.

Flynt managed to somehow block a few of those blows with his trumpet and was trying to buy some time for his teammate to support him. Suddenly the butt of the handle hit him in the face. seems Cobalt extended the handle to hit him Flynt quickly recovered and moved to block the next three attacks he only managed to stop the first two. The third knocked him on his back.

Flynt managed to not get hit with the overhanded swing that followed by rolling then he blew onto his trumpet as hard as he could. Lilac was caught in the large sound wave and flew back into Kobalt who jumped high and slammed him to the ground.

Amazingly he fell on his feet, but now Kobalt was on him attacking and putting him on the defensive. Flynt knew that the officer could turn this fight around and Flynt could not attack from afar for that did not work before he decided to move closer.

While the fight continued Flynt sledded forward on his knees on the side of Kobalt and blasted their opponent with a point-blank blast throwing the colonel high into the air. 

After that defining blast the alarm to show the round of combat was over. Lilac hit the ground hard. 

Both Flynt and Kobalt moved to help the officer up. When they arrived, they found him on one knee and offered him their hands. He took both of them with a big smile on his face and once he was up he put his hands on their shoulders.

“Very well done you gave me quite the workout, I’m glad to see that you boys are quite exceptional despite your age.” The colonel said

“Thank you, sir, you are not bad for an old man” Kobalt said with a calmer smile as both men laughed

“I’m not that old just a good 37 years old.” He responded with his bright smile

“So, Flynt I was hoping that you and your team could join me for a mission I’ll be in hangar 5 in about 3 hours from now.” Colonel Lilac said with that same well-meaning tone of before

Flynt saw this as an incredible opportunity to possible gain some favor with one of the armies most important soldiers so he agreed. He needed to call neo and Ivory finally the chance they where waiting for had appeared right before them.

Cinder had been wondering if she was missing something. It had been almost a week, since she and Watts had managed to send the message to the boy yet no response. Watts had become a lot less useful since he lost his hand. Complaining that he could not truly overthrow that security system. Only control 3 of those robots without being caught and taken out of the network. 

But something was off the Schnee boy had not sent the expected reply so something was wrong. Now it was time to find out what was wrong or if the boy was trying something. But the most important thing to do right now is find out exactly what information was wrong. How to better find out the contradictions by hearing it from the horse’s mouth. Since the boy was not here the father would have to do.

The door to the dark room opened shining light onto their only prisoner. The room could be called depressing with their prisoner being tied down to the floor and only an almost rotting chair for company. That was the point to show the prisoner that there was no hope and no choices. Jacques Schnee before may have looked somewhat regal, but now he looked dirty, weathered and crest fallen. When he was sitting down on the chair looking directly at Cinder his sunken eyes.

“Is it finally over have you been able to contact Whitley?” The once gentleman 

“Oh yes we sent him a message with clear instructions on how to get in contact with us, yet this is not going to end.” Cinder responded with her calm air of authority

“What? Are you sure you did not make some unreasonable request he could not have possibly completed what did you even ask for in exchange for my freedom?” His face looked worried and scared 

“Seems you do not understand, we contacted him and he has yet to respond. It has been at least a week.”

“What you can’t be serious that boy is loyal he is nothing like his ungrateful sisters.” The man’s face had changed quite a bit from an expression of shock to rage

“Yes, yes,yes blah blah blah you are angry and sad. But I do not care about your feelings I want to know why. You told us your son was loyal to you that he would do anything for your safe return, yet we are here.” Cinder said

“So now I am dropping the nice act you will tell me everything about your relationship with your son Whitley and you will not leave any detail out.” Cinder hissed at him 

“Well what can I say about my relationship with the boy. We have a very good working relationship, He admires me, respects me, follows my lead.” The once businessman said with a bit of a hint of pride

“You already told us all about that and you are here not outside. Care to explain why he has yet to move a single finger for you.” Cinder continued to tell him

“Well maybe he is incredible hurt by my passing it might be some of the weakness he inherited from his mother honestly that woman cried a river of tears when her father died. I looked like I was grieving but mostly out of obligation. Honestly the man, could be quite the fool allowing such things like feelings to get in the way of business and more profit.” His tone of voice had changed from one of fear to almost confidence 

“I am not interest in Nicholas Schnee unless he had some sort of influence on Whitley Schnee. Now did his grandfather ever have any influence over him.” Cinder thought this line of questioning might give better results

“No the Nicholas died years before the boy was even born, I made sure to be a big part of his education, after my eldest daughter abandoned the family. I would not allow him to be a failure like her. Even before that I made sure that he got the best education once he showed his substantial intelligence ” The old business man almost smiled as if he was proud of saying the now general of the Atlas military was a failure. 

“So how did you educate your son?” cinder said understanding 

“For the most part Whitley proved himself to be capable and industrious. There were times where he could be difficult but with a bit of talk and some punishment he relented.” The man said

“What punishments did you administer to bring out the best in him.” Cinder talked quickly taking the opportunity since he may have said the wrong words

Jacques did not respond immediately he took his time before he said “As for punishment some reprimand telling him how disappointed I was, maybe lowering his allowance… but they were fit punishments fair punishments he always respected that about me that I was always fair if a bit stern.”

Cinder knew there was something more something this idiot was hiding and he thought her weak as him as if she would not do anything to him.

Cinder placed both her hands on the businessman’s wrist soon after 2 chains made out of dust where formed that tied him to the chair. He must have felt the small amount of heat coming from the chains not enough to burn but to give the message.

“You have not been telling me the truth, you are hiding something tell me what the hell are you hiding.” Cinder raised her voice so it would cut to him like a blade to show him she was in control and that he needed to fear her.

“I have told you nothing but the truth. It is an outrage you should understand that I am a man of worth a man of value you should not treat me as this.” Jacques said with as much defiance as he could muster

Jacques begun to scream as his chain’s temperature rose starting to burn his exposed wrist. Cinder knew exactly what burned skin felt like just look at her. The shocking pain, the need to get away, the feeling that the burned area will fall off at any moment and you will be free and the disappointment as the pain continues.

After she had let the heat go away she looked him dead in the eyes and talked to him in a threatening tone  
“Now will you stop talking in circles and tell me everything you are trying to hide.”

With a hoarse voice he answered “I have told you nothing but the truth. So please stop this.”

Cinder sighed “I know you have been withholding information, because you are still here even after we contacted your son. While you are here your son has been making it big in the media made quite a lot of waves and has been riding high with his new power and influence. So this tells me that your son is not as dutiful, obedient and subservient as you describe.”

“Im here to learn the truth about your son so you will tell me everything I want to know even if I have to cut it from your body. So take the chance to talk or you will suffer like you never have before.” The venom in her voice was overwhelming he the prisoner flinched at the last words

“You have to believe me I have not said a single lie to you I have already told you everything” his voice was trembling at the end

Cinder made a dust blade in one hand and made the temperature rise again on the chains. When the prisoner started screaming from the burning pain in his wrist he stabbed the blade on his shoulder his screech increased in volume as the blade ended his shoulder it soon became an ear-piercing scream as the temperature of the blade begun to burn the wound she twisted it in the blade. After the prisoner had finished screaming cinder smiled.

“so do you understand where you are standing now are you going to talk.” Cinder stated

“I have told you everything” Jacques said with a very damaged voice 

Cinder made another blade and prepared to stab the other shoulder “WAIT” gasped the prisoner 

Cinder waited for a second before stabbing the blade deep into his arm.

The dirty man wailed hard as cinder made both blades and chains burn his tattered flesh. Once she allowed the temperature to drop down and both blades dissipated barely leaving a drop of blood as the wound burned stopping the bleeding.

“Now are we ready to talk do you remember anything you have not told me about you and your son.” Cinder smiled as she spoke the words

“Yes I am.” He looked defeated as the words came out of his mouth

“I was always harshest on my son, even in an early age showed a lot of potential to run the SDC, he always had a quick wit and a certain natural talent for business. Once Winter had left for the military and Weiss was showing less promise as an heir by the day. I decided that he would be the future of the SDC even if Weiss would be the future leader Whitley could help take care of the administrative role just like Nick and I allowed Weiss to go train to be a huntress for it would be beneficial to being the public face of the company. At that point I decided to take a more personal role in his education.”

“First I had to teach him not to turn out as his sister first to stay away from the military and later to not be foolish as Weiss. This was surprisingly easy after Weiss somehow talked me into sending her to beacon academy Whitely seemingly understood not to follow on the example his sisters. Before Weiss had left I tried to make Whitley compete with her. I always made sure that he would try to surpass her academically, for it to happen whenever Weiss had any achievement I would give Whitley a tongue lash berating him for not working hard enough for allowing his sister to out stage him. To maximize his potential, I also made it so he would see more and more advanced studies. I made sure he was always learning his studies where his primary focus, over everything friends, hobbies those things where less important. For the most part Whitley obeyed but there would be times, where he could be difficult. A stern talk accusing him of laziness denning his excuses threatening punishment, would get him back in line. All of this I did so his potential would not be wasted and the legacy of the SDC would continue to have a child I could be proud of since the others where disappointments.”

Jacques as he gave this long explanation cinder saw that sometimes he would not meet her eye, still there was something that he was not telling. 

Cinder touched his shoulder with her Grimm arm and stated “Are you sure that is all you have to say about that.”

Her prisoner shivered at her touch now knowing how things works she had all the power

“Yes that is everything.” Jacques stated while looking worried as if he was just waiting for her to call his bluff

“I am not convinced last chance, say what you want or I will stab your leg” Cinder gave him this ultimatum 

“I have already told you everything.” His eyes were looking around everywhere with visible fear as the words came out of his mouth 

Cinder quickly made the blade and plunged it onto his thigh as his flesh burned leaving the smell of cooked meat in the room the prisoner let out a broken scream with a tirade of curses in the end saying “STOP STOP I WILL TELL YOU ONE LAST THING. WHAT YOU WANT TO KNOW.”

Cinder dissipated the blade and got closer to his face “Tell me what you are trying to hide”

Jacques gasped for air as he begun to spill his guts out  
“I once got physical with Whitley it was when he was 12. 2 years after I had begun his advanced education, he came to me with an idea. He had found that the SDC shipping and distribution where inefficient, before we manually loaded and unloaded our product when we moved it from sea, land and air. But he had found a way to make this process far more efficient and to monetize it for the future. Shipping containers that was the idea, large containers that could hold our merchandise and mechanically be loaded to different forms of transportation thus making it cheaper. I was impressed with this especially since he presented it in such a professional manner even giving me a large stack of the preliminary paperwork. I got to work on making this idea a reality it took a short time but, in the end, we got the exclusive patent for four years. Meaning that if they wished to use these containers would have to pay us for the privilege. We were producing hundreds if not thousands of these containers to use and sell. We were making thousands of Lien out of this idea.”

“After the SDC patent and manufacturing had become public knowledge, Whitley said he wanted to talk privately. I thought it was to be congratulated on how well the SDC was doing. But he was angry we got into an argument where he accused me of stealing the credit for his idea. I told him it was not beneficial for me and the company to tell them that the improvement to our logistics came from a 12-year-old. In the end I decided to beat the lesson into him that he had no right to be such an ungrateful brat towards his father that selflessly gave him everything he had without asking for anything in return. I made sure that all the bruises would easily be hidden under his clothes would not want his sisters to try to get closer to him they would be a bad influence on him. I heard from Klein that Whitley had cried all night at that moment I knew he would not cross me again.”

After hearing his story it took Cinder a moment to finally put all the pieces together but once she did she started laughing. 

Once the laughter stopped she smiled at her prisoner and stated  
“I finally understand it, the reason why your son has yet to contact us is because we promised to ransom you back alive, he does not want you alive. We labored under the presumption he loved and respects you. But it is the opposite he hates and despises you. I wonder how good a liar he is to have you fooled for as long as he did or just how stupid to have never figured out he was lying to you.”

She looked to regain her calm and continue to speak

“Do not worry I will send one of my people to dress the wounds we cannot have you die just yet. Not until your own son does the deed, I have it on good authority that the killing of a hated father can be quite cathartic. I think your son will not think twice to jump at the opportunity to make you suffer no one would just skip at a golden opportunity for revenge.”

Cinder moved to leave the room making the chains that tied him to the chair disappear. She finally had what she needed to start this beneficial alliance between herself and the new head of the SDC she finally understood the way things are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the hardest chapter to write sorry. It took me way to long and I barely gave it a beta so there will be a lot of errors so This chapter dies like a hero for there was no beta. hopefully it is not to bad. 
> 
> As always please post your opinions criticism and whatever you want in the comments bellow.


	11. New deal same old me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whitley makes a party to celebrate the official inauguration of the reconstructed district of mantle.

The airship landed on the pad making the wind howl around it as the engines calmed down. The door quietly opened letting the rays of the early morning sun. Whitley, Klein and Marrow breathed the grey looking air allowing them to walk outside with the robotic hounds following close behind.

They moved out of the landing pad into the building Klein quickly moved elsewhere Marrow knew he had his own preparations to make.

Whitley was all smiles looking as if the cold grey day could not beat the sunniest day in the world. Marrow was the exact opposite a picture of grim determination. A armored automaton with a stiff tail with a hand close to his weapon. Marrow understood the lies of this image present for the most part marrow was happy Whitley had told him that they would be going to the Schnee occupied zone as they were officially calling it to inquire about everything going on. The people that where living in it, their relationships with the company other residents, any recent problems in the neighborhood. Marrow was quite exited, for this would a nice distraction from either having to fight Grimm, oversee interviews with huntsmen, and possible logistics personnel for they might get access to weapons on their person or the machines they would command. Finally, a chance to do the job he was being paid for being the bodyguard for the head of the SDC. 

The only thing about this arrangement that spoiled the mood was that Marrow understood that under that smile his employer was only thinking about all the things that could go wrong, and what to do if it happened. Seems that was the problem with always being 5 steps ahead, you had to think way more than five in case one of those steps was in a wrong direction. 

People had started living here for 7 days as soon as some portion of the residential area where finished. People were selected to move in, with a large emphasis on families and filling out the living arrangement. The residential would hold half of the total amount of refugees once the rest of the homes where open. The residential area almost half of the area of the Schnee district. The other half was their defenses and the industrial zone containing the control centers for the SDC, SCC and SSC for the robots in the area.

When it came to the economic design of the neighborhood Marrows was happy with it. Whitley had made it so that any SDC employee living here would need to pay a lower rent and service bill. The amount of money paid would be 75% of the lower salary of the SDC worker with the raises in the salaries. This left the corporate grunts with more money to save up or for personal expenses than what Marrow's parents could save by slowly killing themselves in the mines of the SDC.

The guest for the party where the residents of the new Schnee district of Mantle a large amount of the press and some of the rich and mighty of atlas. Most of the residents where invited with a place of honor.

Today would be the official inauguration of the residential living area, Whitley would be there to host the inauguration party. This would mark the day all houses would be available to be habituated, a small amount of these new homes would be allowed for sale, or to be rented.

This inauguration would be a lavish party where every person invited would be catered to as if they were some of the elites of Atlas. Servants would be serving food to the guest and after the party all guest would take a gift basket with nonperishable food home. To Marrow this sounded as a stupid display of wealth, but Whitley said they could more than afford it talking about the political power that could be gained. The party would start at the beginning of the afternoon and end in the night but not too late. 

Whitley was going to use the time before the party to check up on the state of their reclaimed territory. Marrow felt proud when he described that he meant to see with his own eyes the state of it, to validate how it was going. In his experience good leaders like Ironwood will always take their time to validate information to see if their underlings missed something.

First order of business would be the mines and control room. Whitley had described this as the true heart of the district, allowing people to make a living and start their better life. Whitley had been keen with the results of the test run they had yesterday, ordering the workers to work the mine with the questing knights. Now to see the footage and the final results of this test run.

Once they left for the street’s Marrow saw the now familiar grey and white steel and concrete buildings of the now rebuild district the buildings where designed to be quickly made, sturdy and functional. As they walked the dogs in front Whitley in the idle Marrow in the back. He saw quite a large variety of people mostly Faunus looking at them while going on their daily business. Marrow felt a tiny bit uneasy so many eyes focused on Whitley, even if no one would do anything, he imagined about what they might be thinking. Did they harbor grudges against the SDC of old and wished to nurse those grudges and eventually act upon them, did they just wonder what this rich brat was doing here. Did they just worry for their future as everyone had as of late? 

Whitley seemed to recognize two of the Faunus that where staring at them, he smiled that sly smile of his and in a chipper voice said

“Mr. Stuart, Ms. Melina funny running into you in the street. Heading to work I hope. Might you accompany me to the main control rooms.”

Marrow saw a tall dark woman with brown hair and a rat tail. Standing beside her almost hidden by her was a small man with white hair, glasses and mouse ears. Both after recollecting themselves having been caught off guard took a few hesitant steps forward.

“Sir umm I mean to say Mr. Schnee I do not wish to be rude, but…” the man said with a small voice barely being able to make eye contact. he did not finish before the woman in a sharp voice interrupted him. “What my friend means to say is what the hell are you doing here. I have to ask this neighborhood never was the nicest place to be in before the Grimm destroyed mantle. Even if the place is being rebuilt, believe me I would not be here if I did not have any other choice.”

“Well for one thing I own the place so I want to know how it is actually doing, I wish to be more in touch with my business than whatever my father did. I would suggest that you use this time we have to tell me if there is any grievances you should have please tell me I will see if I can fix them.” Whitley gave a knowing shrug as he talked.

“Well I for one wish to thank you my quarters are sufficiently spacious and even have warm water, which is quite nice.” The small man said with quite some enthusiasm 

“My fridge broke down yesterday it was a shoddy piece of shit but now I have had to store some food with Stuart here, so do I need to just throw it out or what?” She said without this without minding her manners

“About your nonfunctioning appliance, go contact amber in the main building here is her name office number and SCC contact codes this numbers will be given later on and posted on a billboard but I hope you can use them as quickly as possible.”  
Whitley gave this response almost immediately even taking out paper and pen to write down the last few details before handing out the paper to the taller woman.

The rest of the walk went really smoothly with Whitley asking about Stuarts little sister and Melina’s baby boy. Then soon got to the large shiny metal cube that was the main control center divided into 8 main rooms a large lobby/office space, one large storage room that held a large reserve of knight errands that could be equipped for either combat or mining, and the three control rooms for the SDC, SSC, SCC.

After they had entered the lobby the greater saw Whitley and said general manager West had already gathered the three candidates for the meeting that to Marrow’s understanding was 20 minutes from now.

Stuart and Melina went to excuse themselves but Whitley stopped them and said. “I wish for you to accompany me to this meeting I need you to accompany me since we will be talking about yesterday’s results from the mining we did and I wish for first-hand accounts of it.”

Both of the Faunus looked at each other before nodding to Whitley and following them to the conference room.

The conference room was the same as the day it was built. A room with dark blue walls, a white long table with an array of silver chairs. 5 of those chairs where filled by some people he already knew. 

The short but stocky man with blue hair Argus North the general manager of the SDC in the area. An old man, named Jord steel was smiling from his chair with two youngsters on the chairs besides him. Fiona thyme was sitting in one of the chairs opposites from the old man.

Argus stood up smiling as they entered and said “Ah Mr. Schnee, I wished to prepare everything before you arrived as to not waste your time. We are all ready to start but may I ask who are this two people behind you.”

“Ms. Melina blaze, and Mr. Stuart Little they are part of the lower management in the SDC both control a team of 10 miners. I wish for them to attend the meeting.” Whitley presented them with some gravitas as if they were some of the most important people in the room.

Whitley signaled to two unoccupied chairs telling the newcomers where to sit as he went forward to the head of the table as both Marrow and the hunter robots followed staying behind him as he took his seat making a fearsome image of control.

Argus looked somewhat taken aback but coughed a bit before saying “I see, well onto business then, now for the first order of business, the election results for the representative to the Schnee construction company.”

The elections had been done on the day prior whoever had the most amounts of votes today would be the representative. Due to this not being an official position there was a prize for second place, to be the assistant representative meaning the replacement if anything where to happen to the first.

As the results came to life on screen Marrow saw what was expected Fiona Thyme had won by a majority of 60% of the votes old man Jord had 30% of the votes the other two candidates split the 10% unevenly between them.

Whitley got up from his chair smiling as he begun to speak “May I be the first one to congratulate you, and welcome you as our representative to the people of mantle.” The young man had begun clapping then everyone but Marrow rose up on applause

“Now may all the nonessential elements of the meeting please leave the room.” Argus had commanded latter on the two youngsters left their chair before Stuart and Melina where about to move Whitley raised a hand to tell them to stop

Silence broke into the room after having been partially vacated. The one who broke the silence was of course the one sitting at the head of the table.

“For the first order of business I say we review yesterday’s results with how effective this new way of mining has proven.” Whitley stated

The screens came to life with graphs, tables and more forms of information.

Argus gathered attention before he begun talking “If you ask me yesterday was quite a hectic day some of the robots where damaged and due to some of the delays we got a yield that is around 2/3 of what we usually got before.”

“Still it was only the first run of it no need to be disparaged plus we have most of our workforce divided in three different departments. So those are some of the reasons why I believe given enough time we might double if not triple our yields.” Whitley decided to say with a smile

“Still most of this strategy of yours, requires a night and day shift. Which might stretch our already low workforce even more.” Argus nearly yelled out with some acted distress

“Ms. Thyme I would love to hear your input towards this issue do you believe the workforce could be either expanded or should we make do with what we have abandoning the night shift plan.” Whitley looked directly at the sheep Faunus as he said this and she looked back at him

“Well at the moment many people that did not want to work for the SDC are out of a job and with the benefits offered by your companies for its workers living here, I would suggest that you could expand your workforce here.” Fiona looked

“Yes, most of the mantle small businesses are extinct, we should start hiring there. If we do not raise enough people we might divert some of the excess administrative workers from the accounting department and train them. Ms Blaze in your experience how long did it take your team, to gain competence with the new mining equipment.” Whitley said with some of that confidence and swagger that made him look like someone who had it all figured out

Melina tail straighter having been taken by surprise having been asked a direct question from her boss “Well some of the dirt bags in my team can be some serious knuckleheads in the past 2 of them would turn up to work drunk and we had to basically drown the hangover and drinking out of them. Most of the team had it down to an art after 5 days those boneheads took two more days to catch up.”

Stuart was shaking a bit before he was slapped in the back by Melina afterwards his composure straightened and begun to speak in his scared voice “Boss, I mean Sir, I mean Mr. Schnee. We I meant to say you were talking about possible solutions for our lack of personnel available, I wished to ask have you considered rehiring people that have suffered some disability that disqualified them from work before but will not interfere with the current standards. I have a cousin that once lost a leg during a mining accident and never did find work after that maybe you he could somehow be considered to be rehired.”

Whitley’s expression changed for a second, Marrow thought he knew what this meant making invisible calculations guessing the odds. After a few seconds Whitley smiled deeply before starting to speak.

“I had not thought about that thank you Stuart. Now I believe Stuart’s suggestion should be carried first afterwards we will look to hire more people from mantle. If we are still lacking for miners we might think of diverting the workforce.”

Argus grunted to gather attention “Well now that we have finished this topic. Mr Schnee I mean to ask about our strategy for the Atlas military. As of lately we have been doing as your bodyguard and aide have commanded, but that has been having their specialist be recovered outside our perimeters, their landing area are secure enough but we should somehow coordinate with them. I our current stance is not the best if the people would know we are not cooperating with the atlas military, public opinion might turn against us.”

“Whatever do you mean Argus we are cooperating with the atlas military we are helping them kill the Grimm, with our aircrafts doing sweeps of Grimm occupied areas sending kill teams to kill whatever Grimm are close. We have secured the perimeter and allowed them to use the outside of our perimeter as a landing zone. Are you telling me that is not cooperation?” Whitley gave a hard look at Argus as he said this

“No of course not I would not deny our work here it is just that representatives of the Atlas army have recently redoubled their effort to either to speak with me or get a meeting with you.” Argus backpedaled

“And what has been your response to these efforts?” Whitley enquired

“We have been doing as you have suggested, we give excuses avoid them, generally throw the rules and law at them to make sure that they leave us alone.” Argus responded with a small tone

“I say you should continue this strategy, would not want the Atlas military to try and enter this territory and use that entrance as an excuse to launch an investigation and put a halt to all of our progress.” Fiona had suddenly spoken up 

“Ditto, also it’s nice to walk down the street without one of those camera drones taking your picture as if you might be doing a crime or see people arrested in board daylight. I mean no disrespect when I say this boss but your sister always looked to me more like a dominatrix that is about to insult me than a normal person.” Melina said laid back in her chair and with her feet on the table  
“No insult taken, I wish to thank you for your honesty. Once we need a new strategy I will devise one. I wish to move to the next issue.” Whitley said with his usual sly smile.

The meeting went on for some time in the end Whitley dismissed the meeting after Whitley had said the rent for the houses should remain the same for the next 2 years.

Whitley wished them all a good day and told them he wished for them to attend the party

Marrow had spent most of the day alongside Whitley watching him work and talking to him. Marrow remembered how boring guard duty used to be, with Whitley time passed more quickly, his short time with his new employer had been better than his years with the atlas military.

Once klein had come to get them out of the office saying everything was ready for the festivities to start he led them to where a great tent almost like a circus tent had been erected as big as if it were a circus. the both the inside and the outside of the tent where pure white inside the rows of tables had been set up with some food which Whitley and Klein had referred to as entrees. The bar had been set up with a small sign saying only 3 drinks per person. There was a platoon of servants with trays filled with drinks looking as if they were tied to strings.

Whitley moved to the raised platform with a podium at its center. Once he got there he cleared his throat and stood there looking down at all those servants 

“Today I hope that this will be a good day for everyone most of the people coming through that door have suffered the worst out of the Grimm attack. Many of them lost friends and family. All of them lost their home I hope that today will be a day where nothing terrible happens to them, where they can rest from all the things that have happen as of late. Klein has already given you all of your instructions He will be in door duty with two knights behind him making sure that the guest can leave their coats behind and that those coats are safe, some huntsmen are coming to the party so do not be surprised if they are brandishing weapons. Lets make this a night this people will never forget.” Whitley finished his speech and smiled at them. 

With everything set the vans full of extra food and booze having arrived. With some of the guest having arrived. The guest where dressed in a large variety of clothes some of them had work clothes some wore casual clothing some very old suits and dresses. But out of all of them one looked really out of place with a brand-new suit and slick blue hair.  
Whitley seemingly was in his element talking, shaking hands, laughing to some corny jokes and some raunchy ones. He kept going at a bit of a breakneck speed finishing some conversations before moving to new ones. 

At some point someone walked up to Whitley and Marrow. She was a fox Faunus with a tail. She was wearing a nice purple dress that really accentuated her hips, Whitley smiled once he saw her.

“Laila It is wonderful to see you glad you could make it. You look wonderful.” Whitley said with a small smile 

The girl smiled back “Thank you not bad yourself boss. Really nice party we are having. Hey I need to thank you for that promotion.”

“You don’t have to thank me, it was well deserved you have been with our company for a long time and shown talent to work in upper management.” Whitley said trying to be humble

Laila frowned a bit “You don’t have to be humble here I really needed the money. Jack was recently fired as soon as things turned to shit and Tom has not found work as an artist you know how expensive rent in Atlas is. Oh right you have never met them they are my boyfriend’s we are in what you might call a three-way relationship.” After she said it her tail shot up as if she was scared “Is that weird for you I am sorry for sharing such personal thing they just love me a lot and wish to share me they don’t kiss or lay in bed um forget anything I said please don’t fire me.” Her tone had changed into one of panic fumbling over some of her words 

Whitley began laughing a little bit “You don’t have to worry, I do not oppose who your partners are, no matter if it’s a man, woman, both or neither I do not judge you. Still I would love to meet them, if they are here.”

Upon hearing this she went and made some signals two men moved towards them they were quite different to each other. One was tall and handsome with a head of green hair, blue eyes and shiny pale skin. The other was a short man with piercing red eyes, neatly shaved black hair and brown skin. Both were dressed in fancy suits that looked rarely worn

Both came close and talked a little with Laila before turning around to them.

The larger man extended his hand “Name is Jack, Jack bind, really nice to see you Mr Schnee.”

Whitley took his hand and shook it smiling all the way.

“Mr Schnee it is wonderful to meet you I’m Tomas Shell, I heard a lot about you from Laila.” The shorter man’s hand also was shaken by Whitley

After he had grabbed his hand he looked at both of them as if examining them.

“Well after meeting both of you all I have to say is this one has a stronger grip.” Then Whitley pointed at tom all but Marrow chuckled a bit at the joke Marrow had to stay menacing and mysterious

“Laila did you already give him the gift?” Jack nudged Laila with his shoulder after saying this

Laila went into her bag that was larger than the usual handbags ladies carry and got out a clear mason jar with cookies inside and a large box that looked like a box of chocolates. “Here this are for you, Jack practically forced tom and I to get into the kitchen to help him bake them took us two tries to get right.”

“Yeah sorry I messed up the first two. But hey third time is the charm.” Tom announced with a slightly embarrassed expression 

“So Tomas I heard you are an artist care to elaborate” Whitley decided to note

“Oh yeah I know how to paint and how to sculpt not to toot my own horn but I am one of the best artists in Atlas. I mean some of my works have been bought by collector and even some were auctioned to the Bright family.” Tom said with a cocky smile showing all of his pride

Whitley looked somewhat interested in the man’s boasting

“Well then you would not mind me asking you for your contact code at some point in the future I might commission you for some piece or another.” The young man remarked

Toms eyes lit up upon hearing it he quickly looked around in his suit pockets for his wallet then rummaged around in it for a business card and then grabbed a pen to write something in the back. 

“Here this is my card the address in the front is no longer mine but the number is my personal one, my address is in the back. As my own personal thanks for everything you have done for us you get a first time offer of buy one get two free.” The short man said with quite some enthusiasm

At that very moment Marrow saw a message pop up on his screen it was from Klein telling them that they needed Whitley on the stage Marrow grabbed onto his bosses’ shoulder this was the signal they had agreed to.

“Sorry to cut our conversation short but duty calls, I thank you for your gifts I shall share them with friends. I congratulate the three of you on your wonderful relationship” The young boy declared

Once they reached the bottom of the platform where Klein was waiting for them Whitley gave him the gifts and told him place them on the airship. 

He moved to the stage with a calm confidence, walked as if he owned everything in his vicinity well in fact he did.

After having reached the podium he asked for silence and attention from the crowd. 

Once the appropriate level of attention had been reached he began his announcement.

“Hello everyone I hope you are having a good time don’t worry I won’t talk your ears off I just came to announce the representative of the SDC, SSC and SCC in Mantle the one that won yesterday’s election, will everyone give a warm round of applause to Fiona Thyme.”

As Fiona walked the stage most of everyone clapped at her Marrow observed how some people did not clap especially the guy in the fancy suit he even yawned at the announcement 

Fiona picked up the microphone and begun to speak “I wish today to talk to all the survivors of the recent tragedy I wish for all of us to have a brighter future. I hope that what Whitley Schnee has promised us is not a lie but something we will reach if we all work together I will work as our representative to the Schnee’s to talk for you I am ready to take this responsibility and to help you the people who have suffered. For now, I wish to make a toast for all the survivors in mantle.”

Fiona raised a glass that a servant had brought and Whitley picked up another that contained water. After the toast she let go of the microphone and both of them walked of stage.

After they had left the stage Whitley smiled at her  
“You did great thank you so much for those words, I hope we will get along as we work towards this bright future.” Whitley extended his hand to her 

She shook it calmly looking level at him as if to try to see through him.

After the announcement Whitley had returned to making small talk smiling and interacting with the guest. 

Marrow was laughing inside his head as he saw some pretty young things trying to flirt with Whitley, especially as he shot down their attempts at flirting.

After some time of following Whitley around he suddenly stopped the conversation and excused himself out of it. He immediately asked Marrow for the location of hunter 5. Hunter 1 and 5 where supposed to be outside but hunter 5 had moved inside which was strange, Marrow pointed in the direction of where the robot currently was. 

Whitley begun to powerwalk in that direction. While they walked there Marrow Amin heard first a scream a glass shattering and a mighty whack. 

When they arrived where the commotion started they saw some stunned observers surrounding a wolf Faunus who had a wonderful dress in the style of mistral that showed her long legs and her long tail and, on the floor, that Guy in the overly fancy suit.

“What has happened here.” Whitley said with a worried voice

“What happened the bitch here hit me assaulted me without reason. ME FUCKING Henry Marigold the audacity of this Faunus BITCH.” The guy on the floor said slurring some of his words

“You kept saying inappropriate things to me and trying to flirt if you even call that shit flirting, when you suddenly grabbed the base of my tail and put your other hand on my ass.” The wolf girl said it with a snarl on her face looking angry

“Whatever you seemed pretty into it I mean just look at how you are dressed, your tail was siting still as if you wanted it, or do Faunus girls tails not stay still when they want a male to fuck them.” Henry marigold 

“That shit is a bad stereotype that is not true, besides the only thing that was in my mind was figuring out how to say go fuck yourself in a nice way.” The girl let out all her pent-up rage and fury.

“Whitley can you believe this shit, Faunus am I right, you would have to be stupid as to say no to me, fucking bitch.” Marigold picked himself up and started trying to dust off his suit.

“I think I heard enough take him and throw him out I don’t want him on my or her sight.” Whitley said dismissably 

At that instance Marigold’s face came from a disgusted look to an angry frown. Marrow quickly moved to the idiot and grabbed his arm and started shoving him out of the way towards the door

Marrow looked back at the scene the girl had fallen to her knees beginning to sniffle and cry. Marrow knew that feeling after having tried to look stronger than you are you suddenly feel like crying and falling apart. Whitley dropped to one knee and offered her his orange handkerchief, seemingly reassuring her that it would be alright.

The idiot Marrow was almost dragging to the door tried to punch him only to reel in pain after hitting Marrow’s armor at full force then he tripped and fell to the ground.

Whitley had gotten back up smiling at the girl it was a wicked smile that he had on him. Then he said “Who wants to see how far Henry Marigold can fly, I think more than 3 feet what do you think.”

“Pfft that asshole won’t even fly 1 meter.” the girl said as she took Whitley’s hand to get back up on her feet

As Marrow had begun dragging the prick through the floor as he helplessly kicked and screamed. 

All around them a crowd of people were shouting their approval some his favorites where let’s see that jerk fly, niceeeee taking the garbage out, I say 8 that robot looks strong. 

After having dragged him out to the near entrance of the tent. 

Marrow quickly grabbed him by his pants and the collar of his shirt before throwing him out as far as he could. He landed a good 3 meters from where he was thrown. Never thought he would be using his range finder for knowing how far he had thrown a rich kid. After he hit the ground it took him a second to pick himself up and start walking away seems the idiot left his dignity inside the tent.

While walking back to where Whitley was he was given a lot of pats in the back and some offers for high fives he took. Lot of people cheering for him and he was smiling behind his helmet all the way.”

Once he returned to Whitley he only asked one thing. “so how far did he fly.”

“Three and a half meters” Marrow said with the helmet modifying his voice to sound more robotic

The crowd erupted in applause and cheering as he said this.

“In celebration of this event I will give one more round of drinks on the house everyone have an extra drink at the bar.” His boss said with a loud booming voice as to be heard 

After this announcement a larger round of claps and cheering went by.

Whitley after the cheering had calmed down looked at the girl and said “I hope you will accept a gift of a second gift basket as an apology for allowing this to happen to you

After that things calmed down quite a bit people went back to talking in their groups now happier than they were at the beginning Marrow was congratulated quite a bit for his throw. Whitley seemed to be talking to everyone and anyone laughing chatting up a storm and enjoying himself. 

After a while the party was almost over quite a few people had left and Whitley now was at the door with Klein and Marrow handing out the gift baskets.

After all of the guest were gone Klein and Whitley gave the order to start packing everything up. While the night crew where folding the tent, Marrow, Klein and Whitley walked to the private airship that was parked right behind the tent. Marrow handled lift off and put it in auto pilot for the SDC landing pad, they would take a limo the rest of the way.

Marrow moved to the back cabin to chat it up with his boss after a successful mission. They were all sitting in the big chairs in the back of the plain with both of the hunters they had brought powered down and sleeping on the floor. Klein had open up the mason jar filled with cookies and the chocolate box. Whitley was hungrily eating a chocolate chip cookie, drinking a glass of milk while Klein was tasting the chocolates. 

Marrow took a seat in one of the chairs and asked Klein to pass him a glass of milk. After tasting that sweet nectar, he grabbed one of the chocolates and popped it in his mouth, they tasted great.

Klein begun the conversation while marrow was eating one of the cookies.

“Master Whitley I would say that tonight was a success, but still I do not understand why you insisted that we kept giving alcohol to Henry Marigold even after 3 drinks.” Klein said his eyes changing to a deep blue in the middle of his sentence

“Well why not, you both work for me and besides that I consider you both my friends. Well everything went as I planned today especially the marigold situation.” Whitley said with a sly smile meaning he was proud of himself

“Wait did you pay that Marigold jerk to be a prick to the girl.” Marrow raised his voice slightly thinking a bit about how that asshole did not get what he deserved.

Whitley raised his hand as to try to calm Marrow down “Of course not, Henry marigold is what you might call a wannabe playboy. In other parties with the Atlas elite he has managed to have many one night stands with many leading ladies of Atlas society of course no one of consequence like Amelia Bright. Only people as arrogant and vain as he is who would later use that night to brag to their friends about their many sexual conquests. So a towering idiot like Henry Marigold in a place where almost everyone is less vain and would rather not sleep with a stranger, especially one that does not show any amount of respect to them. You will inevitably get disaster, getting him drunk was just an insurance policy to make sure it happened. Yes a little wrong but I had hunter 5 record everything just in case they plan to sue the girl, and If something where to go horribly wrong you where there Marrow to fix it.”

Marrow was about to speak up against how he had used a person to play his games before Whitley continued “Before you accuse me of any wrongdoing you should hear my reasons. In the future and even in the present some will raise criticism of nepotism and partisanship against me. Others would find reason in this character assassination, I mean why would they not some still think me the same as my father even if there is evidence against it. To protect our project and to prevent any roadblocks to its progress we needed a shield against those accusations. This is it we helped a wronged party against someone who was well connected and rich. By doing this we have basically shut down some of the critics against me and the SDC. Their argument no longer holds any water so no one will listen to it seriously.”

Marrow felt a bit guilty but not so much not as ashamed as he felt when he was kicked out by the Atlas military not as mad as when he lost to those little girls, not as sad as when he decided to sell fetch. So yeah there was no need to sulk about this tiny little detail humiliating that idiot had been fun and felt great so why not own it in private. 

Kleins eyes had changed again into two pink dots “Masterfully played master Whitley, I have to admit I have never seen better politicking.” As he began to enthusiastically clap

“Yeah well-done kid. Still should have told me he was such a piece of crap before I threw him could have given him a good kick or two.” Marrow said with his satisfied smile returning to his face

“But won’t this little stunt royally piss of the marigolds?” Marrow asked already knowing his boss had something in mind towards this

“The marigolds may be vain and arrogant. But they won’t let something as small as a little humiliation get in the way of good money. They will continue to fund me and to try to charm me to move their way. I expect that at most next week I will see the marigold matriarch and even Henry come to me to give me their deepest apology over what happened.” Whitley moved his hand as to dismiss this notion that what had happened could not turn sour.

Marrow smile he was learning more and more about his new boss some things he liked like his impeccable manners how smart he was, other things not so much but at least it was better than when he worked for the atlas military.

After having landed and driven towards the mansion Marrow finally put his helmet back on Whitley had told him that he should wear it most of the time in case a paparazzi would see him without it, at least for 2 more months then he would unveil him as the hero of the SSC. At the doorstep of the manor Marrow saw two people he did not expect to see there, first was Elm Enderne, was looking mighty bored with her hands crossed and looking tiered, the other person standing by the door was none other than General Winter Schnee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter this one was a doozy it took around 16 pages but it covers a lot of ground also this chapter did not get a beta read so it might be fucked with a lot of mistakes would appreciate if you point them out I will correct them but not approve the comment as to not fill the comment as to not fill the comment section with your corrections.

**Author's Note:**

> pls comment bellow I would love your feedback First time using AO3 as a cite


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